Searchers continued to recover remains Tuesday amid the debris caused by the landslide that swept down a mountainside more than a week ago in western Washington, officials said, as the death toll rose to 28, with 20 other people still missing.
The Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said 22 of the dead had been identified. The latest victims identified were Brandy Ward, 58; Thom Satterlee, 65; Lon Slauson, 60, and Adam Farnes, 23. Like the rest of those identified, they died of blunt-force injuries.
All of the confirmed dead as well as those listed as missing lived in the region of western Washington where the landslide occurred. On the list of missing, at least 16 once lived on Steelhead Drive in Oso, which was in the direct path of the slide and is now buried and robbed of any landmark or sign to find it.
On Tuesday, Steve Harris, a supervisor in the search effort, said workers had refined their search techniques in the past few days and were able to zero in on areas where bodies may be found.
“In these areas where we find logs and debris,” he said during the news conference, “that’s where we’re finding human remains.”
After several days of near-constant rain in the area, searchers have been buoyed by improved weather, Harris said. The heavy rains caused additional flooding and made the thick mud even softer, creating difficult and dangerous conditions.
With the water receding,rescue workers have been able to extend their search. In addition, he said, rescue workers have taken advantage of tools that have been sent in, including sonar to search the water and excavation equipment that has been placed on pontoons.
But he cautioned that “there’s a lot of material out there that very likely won’t be recovered.”
The March 22 landslide, which carried trees and houses along its path, covered parts of Washington 530, the highway that connects the Oso community and Arlington - along with any vehicles that might have been on that section of roadway at the time.
“The greatest challenge is working in areas with standing water,” Gary Haakenson, executive director of Snohomish County, said in a statement. “Dogs have indicated there are human remains in areas where there is standing water, so in addition to the good weather drying out the area, water is being pumped out.”
While the authorities said dogs working at the site are able to detect human remains as deep as 10 feet below the surface, the mud and debris is as deep as 75 feet in some places.
Haakenson said the number of people searching the 1-square-mile slide area had dropped significantly from a high last week of more than 200. Additional search-and rescue personnel have been requested, and Harris said that at least 22 volunteers, including family and friends of some of the dead or missing, were among the searchers.
“We want to do all we can to find them and give some closure to their families,” Haakenson said.
The list of victims who have been identified so far range in age from 4-month-old Sonoah Heustis to Lewis Vandenburg, 71, both of whom lived in Arlington.
Information for this article was contributed by staff members of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 04/02/2014