Authorities say they have recovered the bodies of two more people killed in a massive mudslide in the US state of Washington, bringing the total to 16.
The officials said they thought they had located eight more bodies under the mud but were unable to retrieve them.
As many as 176 people remain unaccounted for.
A 177ft (54m) wall of mud buried the town of Oso, north of Seattle, on Saturday. Officials said the search would resume at first light.
"We haven't lost hope that there's a possibility that we could find somebody alive," local fire chief Travis Hots told reporters on Tuesday night.
"We are coming to the realisation that that may not be a possibility - but we are going full steam ahead.
"We are going at this hard to get everybody that's out there that's missing"
The sudden, catastrophic mudslide on Saturday destroyed about 30 houses, temporarily damming a river and leaving a square-mile field of muck and debris in its wake.
Survivors were last pulled alive from the mud on Saturday.
But as many as 200 search-and-rescue workers at a time - aided by dogs, helicopters, laser imaging and excavation equipment - have not let up since, pausing only when darkness made the work too dangerous, officials said.
The search-and-rescue operation was further complicated on Tuesday by heavy rain, Mr Hots said, as the workers were forced to contend with slippery mud, upturned nails, wreckage, and deep pits of water.
At least 16 have been confirmed dead. And on Wednesday, rescuers will work to salvage another eight bodies they believe they have located under rubble of the landslide that covers about a square mile.
At least 176 people are unaccounted for. But officials have stressed that some names of those missing have been duplicated, so there is hope the actual number may be smaller.
Finding them will be toilsome in Oso, with a population of about 180, and Darrington, a town of about 1,350. In some places, the debris is 30 to 40 feet thick.
And it will also be dangerous, since some of the mud has the consistency of quicksand and is filled with the wreckage of nearly 50 structures damaged or destroyed.
On Wednesday, rescuers will work to salvage another eight bodies they believe they have located under rubble of the landslide that covers about a square mile.
President Barack Obama, in the Netherlands on Tuesday, asked that "all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state and the community of Oso."
Obama said he had spoken with Gov. Jay Inslee and signed an emergency declaration.
Closure
Nichole Rivera has returned to her hometown of Darrington in hopes that someone will find her loved ones.
But after seeing the wide swath of devastation and the unyielding mud, she has no optimism of ever seeing them alive again.
"I can tell you with great soundness they're not going to find my parents, or daughter, or her fiancé," she said.
Now, she and her family just want closure -- the bodies of their loved ones, if possible.
But if they don't turn up, they take comfort in knowing that they will rest in a place that they loved.
Her relatives had plans to put their burial plots on their own land.
The waiting came to an end Tuesday for the family of U.S. Navy Cmdr. John Regelbrugge -- at least in part. His brothers found his body and that of his dog.
But his wife, Kris, is still missing.
"They were both home when the slide hit, but they haven't found her yet," his sister-in-law Jackie Leighton said.
Wednesday 26 March 2014
http://www.krdo.com/news/washington-mudslide-more-bodies-found-many-missing/25168846
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