'Out Of Nowhere' Mudslide Buries People Alive In Washington: 3 Dead, Many Missing, Area Demolished

Update 1:20 ET March 23, 2014

An official has reported that search and rescue crews are now only entering the mudslide area if they can see evidence of a survivor. Otherwise, it’s too dangerous.

Original article

Search and Rescue (SAR) teams are looking for Washington victims of Saturday’s massive mudslide of dirt, trees and rocks that demolished part of eastern Snohomish County where no advance warning was given.  SAR responders reported hearing voices, possibly from children, late Saturday from an area hit by the slide.

“All of a sudden there was a wall of mud” about 25 feet high,” said Robin Youngblood was sitting in the living room with her friend, Jetty Dooper, when they heard a crack. “Then it hit and we were rolling. The house was in sticks. We were buried under things, and we dug ourselves out.” 

Youngblood said she scrambled onto the top of the clothes dryer, and Dooper onto a dishwasher. Covered in mud and shivering, they waited for about an hour until they lifted a short distance by helicopter and placed on an ambulance, Youngblood said.

Three people died and at least eight others were injured Saturday in a landslide that destroyed six or more homes along a state highway in northwest Washington, according to officials.

Three deaths were confirmed by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, eight people rescued and were treated in area hospitals, and the search is still in progress from others. At least six houses were destroyed, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

Lt. Rodney Rochon, head of the Snohomish County sheriff’s special operations unit said a 6-month-old baby was airlifted to Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center where aospital spokeswoman said the baby was in critical condition.

Four other victims were in Harborview: a 68-year-old man in critical condition; an 81-year-old man in critical condition; a 37-year-old man in serious condition; and another man, age and condition unknown, spokesperson Susan Gregg said.

“We’ll be here all night long doing what we can to rescue people,” Snohomish County Sheriff Ty Trenary said.

Trenary said the search and rescue teams’s work has been made difficult by the sheer devastation to the area about 40 miles north of Seattle.  

“There’s nothing left in the area,” he said.

The power, speed and severity of the slide were spectacular, as it swept over a 360-yard long section of roadway with mud and debris up to 20 feet deep.

“In three seconds, everything got washed away,” said Paulo de Oliveira of Lynnwood, who was driving on Highway 530 when the slide hit around 11 a.m. “Darkness covering the whole roadway and one house right in the middle of the street.” 

De Oliveria was behind two other vehicles when the slide hit, he said, adding, “I came within about 50 feet of being washed out.”

He got out of his car and heard a woman scream from one of the swamped houses. 

“Along the river, I saw one place where there were two homes and they were just gone. Nothing left but a portable toilet … destruction all around.”

The slide was in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains where rains have been heavy, according to Washington state trooper Mark Francis.

Evacuations

Authorities called on people downriver in homes from Oso to Arlington, to evacuate Saturday night. The highway was closed both directions. 

John Pennington, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, said the region has a history of slides but this time, there was no advance warning of the disaster.

“This slide came out of nowhere,” he said.

Sources: Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Fox News, YouTube