Here's one of those tragically sad stories that makes you want to hug your loved ones and count you blessing. One minute people are there, the next they are gone. A mile long mudslide in Washington State has killed three people and destroyed (six houses Updated), in a remote region. The AP reports, Washington State Governor Calls Scene Of Deadly Mudslide 'Total Devastation'
ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — Searchers found another body Sunday in the debris from a massive landslide, bringing the death toll to at least four from the wall of mud and debris that also completely destroyed a small riverside neighborhood in Washington state.
18 people remain missing.
Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said Sunday evening that crews were able to get out to the muddy, tree-strewn area after geologists flew over in a helicopter and determined it was safe enough for emergency responders and technical rescue personnel to search for possible survivors.
"We didn't see or hear any signs of life out there today," he said.
The 1-square-mile mudslide that struck Saturday morning also critically injured several people and destroyed about 30 homes.
"We have this huge square-mile mudflow that's basically like quicksand," he said.
The slide wiped through what neighbors described as a former fishing village of small homes — some nearly 100 years old. The neighborhood "is not there anymore," Hots said.
Our sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims. May they rest in peace.
6:02 PM PT: Changed fishing village to mile long mudslide killing three and subsuming at least one house, on alert from Reetz. The first AP report said it was a fishing village, but Reetz, and later article indicates it is a very remote area and it is difficult to know exactly what was damaged. Sorry,
6:12 PM PT: Massive Mudslide Kills 4 In Washington StateOfficials survey a large mudslide in this handout photo provided by the Washington State Police near Oso, Washington on Sunday.
The mudslide occurred in Oso. Washington which is about 60 miles north of Seattle.
" 'We have people who are yelling for help and we are out there,' Travis Hots, Snohomish County district fire chief, said about 10:30 p.m. 'This is a massive slide, and we are in a very, very fluid and unstable situation ... This is still a rescue mission.'
"With three people known dead, at least six homes destroyed and a state highway severed by the mudslide, officials advised people downstream of the area to evacuate, fearing that further damage could occur.
"Riverside residents between the slide area and Arlington, 15 miles to the west, were advised to leave their homes for the night, because of the danger that the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River could burst through the blockage created by the slide and cause immediate, severe flooding."
A view of the hillside that gave way and collapsed near State Route 530 is seen in this Washington State Department of Transportation handout picture taken near Oso, Washington on Sunday. ...that the slide was 135 feet wide and 180 feet deep and completely covered a part of State Route 530. ...to a man who driving on that highway when the mudslide happened.
"I was three cars back, and I saw a truck with a boat," Paulo Falcao de Oliveira told the paper. "After that, I just saw the darkness coming across the road. Everything was gone in three seconds."
He said he heard a woman and a baby screaming.
6:20 PM PT: