A day of rain hampered efforts to find survivors in the vast pile of mud and timber which crashed into the tiny town of Oso on Saturday. ‘Unfortunately, we didn’t find any signs of life,’ Snohomish County fire district chief Travis Hots told reporters, three days after the catastrophe in the northwestern US state of Washington.
He said two more bodies had been recovered, adding to the 14 corpses already brought out, while eight more were located in the debris. The number of reports of people unaccounted for remains at 176, although that could include double-counting and people who may turn up elsewhere, and so likely does not represent how many more fatalities may be found.
A total of 49 dwellings in the rural town were hit by the 2.5 sq km wall of mud, rocks and trees, which also destroyed part of a highway some 95 km northeast of Seattle. Hots said the massive emergency operation was still aimed at rescuing survivors as well as recovering bodies, even though the chances of finding people alive diminish with each day.
‘We haven’t lost hope that there’s a possibly that we can find someone,’ he said. The National Guard joined local and state emergency workers after President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Washington state. ‘I would just ask all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state and the community of Oso and the families and friends of (the missing),’ said Obama. ‘We hope for the best, but we recognize that this is a tough situation,’ he added in the Netherlands, where he was attending a nuclear security summit.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will help ‘save lives and to protect property and
public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Snohomish County’, said the White House. Officials insist finding survivors is still possible, even there have been no signs of life since Saturday.
‘I believe in miracles and I believe people can survive these events,’ said emergency management chief John Pennington, adding: ‘They’ve done it before, they can do it again.’
He said two more bodies had been recovered, adding to the 14 corpses already brought out, while eight more were located in the debris. The number of reports of people unaccounted for remains at 176, although that could include double-counting and people who may turn up elsewhere, and so likely does not represent how many more fatalities may be found.
A total of 49 dwellings in the rural town were hit by the 2.5 sq km wall of mud, rocks and trees, which also destroyed part of a highway some 95 km northeast of Seattle. Hots said the massive emergency operation was still aimed at rescuing survivors as well as recovering bodies, even though the chances of finding people alive diminish with each day.
‘We haven’t lost hope that there’s a possibly that we can find someone,’ he said. The National Guard joined local and state emergency workers after President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Washington state. ‘I would just ask all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state and the community of Oso and the families and friends of (the missing),’ said Obama. ‘We hope for the best, but we recognize that this is a tough situation,’ he added in the Netherlands, where he was attending a nuclear security summit.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will help ‘save lives and to protect property and
public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Snohomish County’, said the White House. Officials insist finding survivors is still possible, even there have been no signs of life since Saturday.
‘I believe in miracles and I believe people can survive these events,’ said emergency management chief John Pennington, adding: ‘They’ve done it before, they can do it again.’