SEAHAWKS, SOUNDERS TO VISIT AREA
Members of the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Sounders soccer team plan a visit to a community affected by the deadly Washington state mudslide.
Kris Rietmann, a spokeswoman for the crew working on the eastern portion of the slide, said Seahawks and Sounders players were to meet with children and others at the Darringoton Community Center. The Seahawks said in a statement they were going “to offer support and encouragement to this community as privately as possible.”
The team also encouraged people to donate to relief efforts.
— Associated Press
Estimated financial losses from the deadly Washington mudslide that has killed at least 24 people have reached $10 million, Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday in a letter asking the federal government for a major disaster declaration.
In seeking additional federal help following one of the deadliest landslides in U.S. history, Inslee said about 30 families need assistance with housing, along with personal and household goods. The estimated losses include nearly $7 million in structures and more than $3 million in their contents, Inslee’s letter said.
He is also seeking federal help with funeral expenses for up to 48 people, and mental health care programs for survivors, volunteers, community members and first responders.
Monday’s request asks for access to disaster housing, disaster grants, disaster-related unemployment insurance, and crisis counseling programs for those in Snohomish County and for the Stillaguamish, Sauk-Suiattle and Tulalip Indian tribes.
The Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said Monday afternoon that it had received 24 victims, and 17 of those had been positively identified. Previously, the official death toll was 21, with 15 victims identified.
Authorities have said more than two dozen people remain missing following the March 22 slide that destroyed a rural mountainside community northeast of Seattle.
Crews have cleared a path through the muck and devastation wrought by Washington’s deadly mudslide, making the painstaking search for victims easier.
The makeshift road completed over the weekend links one side of the 300-acre debris field to the other. Crews have also been working to clear mud and debris from the highway, leaving piles of gooey muck, splintered wood and housing insulation on the sides of the road.
Searchers have had to contend with treacherous conditions, including household chemicals, septic tanks, gasoline and propane containers. When rescuers and dogs leave the site, they are hosed off by hazardous materials crews.
“We’re worried about dysentery, we’re worried about tetanus, we’re worried about contamination,” said Lt. Richard Burke of the Bellevue Fire Department. “The last thing we want to do is take any of these contaminants out of here and take them into town.”
Steve Harris, a division supervisor for the search effort, said Monday that search teams have been learning more about the force of the slide, helping them better locate victims in a debris field that is 70 feet deep in places.
“There’s a tremendous amount of force and energy behind this,” Harris said of the slide.
Harris said search dogs are the primary tool for finding victims, and searchers are finding human remains four to six times per day. Sometimes crews only find partial remains, which makes the identification process harder.
The slide dammed up the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, causing water to pool up on the east side. The river cut a new channel through the mud, but rain has raised the water level nearly a foot, said Kris Rietmann, a spokeswoman for the team working on the eastern portion of the slide. Searchers should get some relief soon. Mainly dry weather is forecast through Wednesday.
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