Nearly 90 feared dead, dozens missing in Philippine mudslide

Nearly 90 people are feared to have been killed and dozens are missing after a tropical storm hit the southern Philippines triggering mudslides and flooding, police and disaster officials said on Saturday.

The casualties were all on the main southern island of Mindanao, they said.

Emergency workers and soldiers rushed to the remote village in the Lanao del Norte province.

"We have no contact with village officials because power and communications lines were down due to a tropical storm," said Roy Secuya, a local official.

The area had been hit by Tropical storm Tembin.

"The river rose and most of the homes were swept away. The village is no longer there," Tubod police officer Gerry Parami told AFP by telephone.

Police, soldiers and volunteers used shovels to dig through mud and debris in a bid to recover bodies in Dalama, a farming village of about 2,000 people near Tubod, Parami added

Boulders brought down by flash floods also buried around 40 houses in the town of Piagapo, killing at least 10 people, civil defence officer Saripada Pacasum told AFP.

"We've sent rescuers but they're making little progress due to the rocks," he said.

The Philippines is pummelled by 20 major storms each year on average, many of them deadly. But Mindanao, home to 20 million people, is rarely hit by these cyclones.

Eight other people were killed by floods elsewhere on Lanao del Sur province, Pacasum said.

Police said three people each died from landslides in the provinces of Bukidnon and Zamboanga Sibugay, while one fatality was also reported in Iligan city.

Four people were listed as missing after being buried in landslides or being swept away by floodwaters, while more than 12,000 have fled their homes, they added.

After slicing across Mindanao on Friday, Tembin sped west over the Sulu Sea with gusts of 95 kilometres an hour.

It was forecast to smash into the tip of the western island of Palawan late Saturday, the state weather service said.

Tembin struck less than a week after Tropical Storm Kai-Tak devastated the central Philippines, leaving 54 dead and 24 missing.

The deadliest typhoon to hit the country was Haiyan, which left 7,350 people dead and destroyed entire towns in heavily populated areas of the central Philippines in November 2013.

Saturday 23 December 2017

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/23/nearly-90-dead-dozens-missing-philippine-mudslide1/

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Colombia mudslide after heavy rains kills over 50 people

An avalanche of mud and debris roared over an alpine town in western Colombia before dawn on Monday, killing at least 52 people in a flash flood and mudslide triggered by heavy rains.

Residents were stirred from bed in the dead of the night by a loud rumble and neighbours’ shouts of “The river! The river!” as modestly built homes and bridges plunged into the Libordiana ravine. Survivors barely had enough time to gather their loved ones.

“It was rocks and tree trunks everywhere,” Diego Agudelo said, adding that never in 34 years living next to the ravine had he suspected such a tragedy was possible.

“The river took out everything in its path,” the construction worker said, including the back part of his home.

The disaster hit around 3am local time (8am GMT) in the town of Salgar, about 60 miles (100 km) south-west of Medellin. Dozens of rescuers supported by Black Hawk helicopters evacuated residents near the ravine for fear of another mudslide. A red fire truck could be seen hauling away several bodies, their bare feet dangling from an open trunk.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who travelled to the town to oversee relief efforts, said several children lost their parents and the bodies of those killed needed to be transported to Medellin to be identified. As giant diggers were removing debris he vowed to rebuild the lost homes and provide shelter and assistance for the estimated 500 people affected by the calamity.

“Nobody can bring back the dead ... but we have to handle this disaster as best we can to move forward,” Santos said. Authorities said that 52 people were confirmed dead but that the number could rise. Dozens have suffered light injuries and an unknown number of people are still unaccounted for.

Colombia’s rugged topography, in a seismically active area at the northern edge of the Andes, combined with shoddy construction practices, has made the country one of Latin America’s most disaster-prone. More than 150 disasters have struck the country over the past 40 years, claiming more than 32,000 lives and affecting more than 12 million people, according to the Inter-American Development Bank.

The tragedy in Salgar appeared to be the single deadliest event since a 1999 earthquake in the city of Armenia that left hundreds dead. A wave of flooding during the 2011 rainy season left more than 100 dead.

The flooding destroyed the town’s aqueduct and even areas in less hazardous zones experienced flooding. As a cautionary measure, electricity and other public services were suspended after several utility poles were knocked down.

Authorities called on volunteers to send water, food supplies and blankets to cope with what they described as a humanitarian emergency.

The town of 18,000 lies amid one of Colombia’s major coffee-growing regions. Former president Alvaro Uribe, who spent part of his childhood in Salgar, where his mother was born, rushed to the town to assist in relief efforts.

Tuesday 19 May 2015

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/18/colombia-mudslide-death-toll

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10 workers die as effluent tank explodes in Ranipet

It was something that the Fire and Rescue Services personnel of Vellore district have not witnessed earlier. In the early hours of Saturday, they waded through a path filled with effluents up to their knees to rescue persons trapped in the wall collapse of a Secured Landfill Facility at Ranipet.

Nine members of the Fire Services Station at Ranipet SIPCOT rushed to the SIDCO Industrial Estate, after receiving a call at 1.30 a.m. about the incident. Another 14 to 15 members from the nearby fire stations of Ranipet and Arcot joined them in the operation.

“The odour emanating from the slush made it difficult for us. We somehow managed, as it was an open area. We wore masks due to the presence of chemical agents in the slush and wore gum boots as we had to walk through the slush all the way to the spot,” said G. Thandavan, Station Fire Officer, Ranipet SIPCOT station. Lack of lighting added to their difficulties. “It was like a tsunami. The bodies were literally buried under the slush and it made searching hard. We had to watch every step we took and moved slowly,” he added.

The site is nearly two kilometres away from the Ranipet SIPCOT fire station, said a member of the rescue team. The rescue team personnel said that they had never encountered such a massive industrial accident in Vellore before. “There was knee-deep slush deposited in the area. Our legs started to itch. We recovered all the bodies by morning but stayed on till afternoon to see if our help was needed,” a team member said.

Meenakshi Vijayakumar, deputy director of Fire Services, North Western Region, Vellore, and S. Murugesan, district officer, Fire and Rescue Services, Vellore, advised the team on rescue operations.

Mr. Thandavan said they recovered 10 bodies and rescued one person from the site. “The rescued person, Ravi, had managed to climb up to the top of a building. He was caught there for seven hours and we brought him down using a ladder,” he added.

The SLF was being used to stock liquid effluent of 86 tanneries and leather factories. Two tanks, each with 1,000 cubic metres capacity, were used for the purpose, though only one had permission to hold the effluent stock. The one that exploded did not have the requisite permission.

On information, Fire and Rescue Service personnel rushed to the spot. After much struggle, they recovered the bodies and sent them to the Government Vellore Medical College and Hospital for autopsy. Later, nine bodies were sent to Chennai from where they will be sent to their hometowns in West Bengal by train.

Monday 2 February 2015

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil_nadu/10-Workers-Die-as-Effluent-Tank-Explodes-in-Ranipet/2015/02/01/article2646963.ece

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Tropical Storm Jangmi: 53 Dead In Philippines As Rains Bring Flooding, Landslides To Islands

The death toll from flooding and landslides in the Philippines wrought by tropical storm Jangmi rose to 53 on Wednesday, officials said, with some regions saying they were caught off guard by the deluge.

In Catbalogan town in Samar province 19 people died in a landslide that left homes and vehicles buried under rocks and mud, local Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan said, adding that the town had been surprised by the landslide.

“We did not expect a deluge. We thought the hill where the landslide hit was tough as rocks,” she told AFP.

“There was no evacuation, people were just advised to prepare for possible landslides,” she said. “We need to check communication systems to find out what went wrong.”

Jangmi affected 121,737 people, of which 80,186 are in evacuation centres, according to the national disaster monitoring agency, which said that 53 people were killed overall.

The storm’s death toll was nearly triple that of the last major storm to hit the country, Super Typhoon Hagupit, earlier this month.

Hagupit, with winds of 210 kilometres (130 miles) per hour, sparked a massive evacuation effort as it brought back memories of the strongest storm ever to hit the country, Super Typhoon Haiyan, whose 230-kilometre per hour winds left 7,350 dead or missing in 2013.

In Misamis Oriental province, floods flattened rice and corn fields resulting in an estimated USD 9 million in damages, Governor Yevgeny Emano told.“We were caught by surprise, we didn’t expect that we would be hit by the eye of the storm,” Emano said, although he noted he had received some warnings.

In Leyte — the province worst-hit by Haiyan — the rains brought landslides and floods that closed off major roads, Governor Leopoldo Domenico Petilla said.

Mina Marasigan, the national disaster monitoring agency’s spokeswoman, defended the government’s handling of the storm saying weather warnings were sent out even as Jangmi was still forming over the Pacific Ocean.

“Maybe people underestimated the situation because it’s a tropical depression, not a super typhoon. They dismissed it as weak,” she said.

“We need to study what happened in this storm closely and find ways for the public to better understand storm warnings,” Marasigan added.

Most of the deaths were reported Tuesday in the eastern and central islands, including areas that were devastated last year by Typhoon Haiyan, which killed over 6,300 people. Five bodies were recovered from a house buried by a landslide in Tanauan town, eastern Leyte province, which suffered extensive damage during Haiyan.

Tuesday’s deaths included 12 people caught in a landslide near eastern Catbalogan City, according to the AP. Among the victims were people trapped in two vans and six homes when the landslide hit.

The storm, known locally as Tropical Storm Seniang, made landfall early Monday morning on the east coast of Mindanao, the Philippines’ southernmost and second largest island. Flooding on Mindanao wiped out several highways and bridges. Evacuation centers were inundated with thousands of people seeking shelter from the storm. Jangmi then marched northwest across the Visayas, a collection of islands circling the Visayan Sea. The heaviest rainfall was felt in the central Philippines, according to Weather.com.

Rough seas on Monday kept nearly 13,400 people stranded on the islands, where ferries are a primary mode of travel. Warnings remained in effect Tuesday as the storm made its way toward the South China Sea. Meteorologists expected the storm to move beyond the Philippines by New Year’s Day. Jangmi could reach southern Thailand and northern Malaysia by Saturday, according to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

More than 3.9 million people were forced from their homes in November 2013 after Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the islands. Tens of thousands of people were injured in the storm, widely considered one of the strongest storms to ever make landfall, according to CNN.

Wednesday 31 December 2014

http://www.ibtimes.com/tropical-storm-jangmi-31-dead-philippines-rains-bring-flooding-landslides-islands-1769672

http://indianexpress.com/article/world/asia/philippines-jangmi-storm-kills-53-people/

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9 killed, 10 missing in Sri Lanka mudslides

At least nine people were killed and 10 others were missing in mudslides triggered by heavy rains Friday in the central hills of Sri Lanka, officials said.

More than 60,000 people have been evacuated and 3,000 homes destroyed as floods and mudslides have covered many parts of the Indian Ocean island in the last four days, disaster officials said.

Nine people were killed and two injured in mudslides Friday in the tea-growing Badulla district when their houses were buried in landslides, said Udaya Kumara, an official at the state disaster management center. Ten others were missing and rescue operations were temporarily halted due to risk of further landslides, he said.

The inclement weather has so far affected more than 500,000 people across the country.

The meteorology department has warned that thundershowers and heavy rains will occur in many parts of the island nation and asked people in coastal areas to be vigilant.

It is monsoon season in some parts of Sri Lanka, but many other areas not normally affected are also experiencing nonseasonal rains.

Dozens of people were killed in October when mudslides buried homes of tea plantation workers in the country's central hills.

Friday 26 December 2014

http://www.thestate.com/2014/12/26/3894017_sri-lanka-mudslides-kill-9.html

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Body of the final missing Washington mudslide victim has been found

Four months after a mudslide ravaged a portion of Washington state, authorities announced Tuesday that they had located its final victim.

Rescue workers in Snohomish County found the body of Molly “Kris” Regelbrugge on Tuesday morning, offering an unexpected bit of closure to a search that seemed, in many ways, like it would never fully end.

“I’m humbled and honored that we are able return Kris to her family,” Sheriff Ty Trenary said in a statement. ““I’m also extremely grateful to the communities of Oso, Darrington and Arlington who stood beside us these past four months in our efforts to recover all of the missing victims.”

The search through the mudslide had, at one point, included hundreds of people scouring a wide and treacherous area. The slide area was incredibly difficult to search, since it was both unusually large and particularly gnarly (with debris, mud, wreckage and dangerous liquids).

Although no survivors had been found since the day of the slide, workers continued to dig through the debris and search for bodies.

The active search through the mudslide debris was called off in late April, more than a month after the slide that killed 43 people and left a trail of devastation. When the search was called off, the bodies of two victims — Regelbrugge and Steve Hadaway — were still missing, so the official death toll remained at 41.

But even though active search operations were called off, workers continued to try and look through the debris field and seek clues. In May, workers found a body that the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed several days later was that of Steve Hadaway.

Relatives had been worried that Hadaway would never be found as weeks of searching turned up nothing. “We were thinking worst case scenario the whole time, you know?” John Hadaway told KIRO-TV about the discovery of his brother’s body. “And here he is complete. We even got his wedding ring!”

At one point after the slide, the list of people reported to be missing had ballooned to 176. Even though that number was revised as emergency workers located people and figured out what names were duplicated, the immediate days after the slide were characterized with a distinct lack of what we knew. We saw the destruction, we knew dozens of people were potentially dead, but the toll remained unclear as workers spent days navigating the challenging environment. The list of missing people shrunk and the death toll began to rise, but this process required days of searching, waiting and not knowing.

On Tuesday at about 8 a.m., four months after the slide first struck and in an area where things belonging to the Regelbrugge family had been found, search personnel finally located Regelbrugge’s body. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner has to officially identify her to bring the death toll to 43, but officials said that after four months of searching, waiting and not knowing, they believe they have found the final person they were seeking.

The body of her husband, Navy Cmdr. L. John Regelbrugge III, was found days after the slide.

Wednesday 23 July 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/22/body-of-the-final-missing-washington-mudslide-victim-has-been-found/

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Torrential rain kills 23, displaces thousands in Sri Lanka

Nearly 150 schools have been closed, 23 people died and thousands more displaced as Sri Lanka grapples with rains that have lashed the island for days, an official said on Wednesday.

Torrential rain lashed much of the western and central parts of the country resulting in flash floods, toppled buildings and disrupted lives.

Local media have estimated about 27,200 people have been displaced by the floods and landslides. Over 40 houses have been completely destroyed due to heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding in six districts while another 101 homes have been partially damaged.

Majority of the deaths and damage have been reported from the Kalutara District in the western province and relief efforts are continuing, Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told reporters.

Friday 06 June 2014

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140604/torrential-rain-kills-23-displaces-thousands-sri-lanka

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Human remains found at Oso mudslide site

Two families are waiting for DNA test results to learn if remains found Thursday in the Oso debris fields belong to loved ones they lost in the March 22 mudslide.

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office made the announcement Thursday afternoon, but did not say if the person found is a man or woman.All but two of the 43 known slide victims had been found and identified.

The remaining two are Steven Hadaway, 53, of Darrington and Molly Kristine “Kris” Regelbrugge, 44, who lived in the Steelhead Haven neighborhood of Oso. “It has not been confirmed that the body found today is that of Steven Hadaway or Molly Kristine “Kris” Regelbrugge,” sheriff's office spokeswoman Shari Ireton said. “Identification of the deceased, as well as cause and manner of death, will be determined by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office.”The medical examiner's office on Thursday did not know how long it might take to make a positive identification.

John Hadaway is Steven's brother. He has been in frequent contact with the sheriff's and medical examiner's offices since the slide. He was given advance word Thursday about the discovery.Hadaway said it is too early to get his hopes up. He knows that some bodies found earlier were not intact and that it is possible the remains discovered Thursday could belong to someone who already has been identified.“Until they do a DNA test, it could be someone they found three weeks ago,” he said.

Steven Hadaway was a father who served in the Marine Corps and lived in Darrington. He was installing a TV satellite dish at the home of another slide victim when mud carried him away.Kris Regelbrugge was a mother to grown children and the wife of John Regelbrugge III, an active duty Navy commander. His body was found.The remains found Thursday were discovered by sheriff's Sgt. Danny Wikstrom, who oversees search-and-rescue operations in the county.“He was not out there on an active search,” Ireton said.The discovery was not related to cleanup work being done along Highway 530, which was buried in the slide, said Travis Phelps, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.“It's not from our part of the slide,” Phelps said.

John Hadaway said he hopes that the remains are either his brother or Regelbrugge.“Do I get my hopes up? I try not to,” Hadaway said. “When you are out there and you see, you understand.”Even so, he likes to think that all of the slide's victims eventually will be recovered.“It could be a week. It could be a month,” he said. “It could be six months from now, but I am going to believe they will find them.”

Friday 23 May 2014

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20140522/NEWS01/140529652/Human-remains-found-at-Oso-mudslide-site

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Afghanistan declares site of horrific landslide a mass grave as threat of flooding forces villagers to evacuate

As Afghans observed a day of mourning Sunday for the hundreds of people killed in a horrific landslide, authorities tried to help the 700 families displaced by the torrent of mud that swept through their village.

President Hamid Karzai ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff as he called for aid and financial assistance. Local officials and residents in Badakhshan province had lost hope of finding survivors after recovering only 15 bodies, according to Naweed Frotan, a spokesman for the province bordering China and Tajikistan. Authorities have declared the site a mass grave.

As many as 2,000 people are believed dead after the side of a mountain gave way, burying the village of Ab-e-Barak under 40 metres of mud and rocks. An additional 4,000 people have been displaced, according to Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, who provided the death toll.

The missing people “are all dead by now,” said Frotan. “We’re unable to bring the bodies out. There’s no way except to abandon them there.” As many as 2,700 people may be buried, Badakhshan Governor Shah Waliullah Adeeb said yesterday.

The families left their homes due to the threat of more landslides in the village of Abi Barik in Badakhshan province, Minister for Rural Rehabilitation Wais Ahmad Barmak said.

Another reason for the evacuation was the threat of flooding caused in part by the landslide itself, said Mohammad Daim Kakar, from the Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority. He said the shifting earth had made it difficult for water to drain through the valley – a serious concern as rain continued to fall Sunday.



Engineers are working on a plan to divert the water, he said. Aid groups and the government have rushed to the remote area in northeastern Afghanistan bordering Tajikistan and China with food, shelter and water. But for those affected, help was slow to arrive.

“My family, my wife and eight children are alive, but have nothing to use as shelter. We have nothing to eat,” said Barat Bay, a 50-year-old farmer and father of eight. “We have passed the last two nights with our children at the top of this hill with no tent, no blanket.”

Kakar, who visited the area Sunday, acknowledged that aid had yet to reach some people but said their efforts were complicated by villagers from areas unaffected by the landslide also coming to claim the aid.

A spokesman for the International Organization of Migration, Matt Graydon, said the group is bringing solar-powered lanterns, blankets and shelter kits. He said after a visit to the area Sunday that some residents have gone to nearby villages to stay with family or friends while others have slept out in the open.

“Some people left with almost nothing,” Graydon said.



Authorities visiting from Kabul gave $800,000 to the provincial governor during visits on Saturday and Sunday to use in the aid effort, said Kakar and Barmak, who promised that the government would pay more if needed.

Karzai designated Sunday as a day of mourning for the hundreds of people who died. Authorities still don’t have an exact figure on how many people died in the landslide, Barmak said, and estimates have ranged from 250 to 2,700.

The government has identified 250 people who died and estimated that 300 houses were buried under tons of mud, Barmak said.

It will be impossible to dig up all the bodies, but many people continue to look on their own, said Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, the head of Badakhshan province’s National Disaster Department. He said officials met with community elders Sunday in Faizabad, the provincial capital, to see whether they wanted the government to continue digging, but said no final decision has been made.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Karzai on Sunday to offer his condolences and additional assistance for the relief efforts. A White House statement about the call did not elaborate.

Afghanistan has suffered through some three decades of war since the Soviet invasion in 1979. But natural disasters such as landslides, floods and avalanches have taken a toll on a country with little infrastructure or development outside of its major cities.

Already this year, 159 people have died in April and May from flooding, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday in a statement. New waves of flooding are expected in two northern provinces, the agency said.

Sunday 05 May 2014

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/05/05/afghanistan-declares-site-of-horrific-landslide-a-mass-grave-as-threat-of-flooding-forces-villagers-to-evacuate/

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255 buried bodies identified in N. Afghan landslide: official

Up to 255 victims were identified out of hundreds of villagers buried under their collapsed houses in a deadly landslide Friday in northern Afghan province of Badakhshan, a provincial disaster official said Saturday.

"We have talked to relatives of victims. The disaster management department only find and registered the identification of 255 buried people out of hundreds trapped villagers in Aab Bareek village landslide of the Argo district ," Sayyed Abdullah Homayyon Dehqan, provincial director of disaster management department, told Xinhua.

He corrected earlier reports that 255 bodies were retrieved. Only three bodies were recovered, including a women and a child, he said.

The remote village located a four-hour drive from provincial capital Faizabad city, 315 km northeast of Afghan capital of Kabul.

The natural calamity was triggered by recent heavy rains in the mountainous province.

Earlier in the day, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued an order announcing Sunday, May 4, as a national mourning day to observe the catastrophe, presidential spokeswoman Adela Raz said in her twitter account.

"There are around 1,000 houses in the village. Over 300 homes are buried. The rescue teams are still in the fear of mudsliding at the site until now," Dehqan noted.

More than 2,100 people were confirmed dead following two mudslides within an hour on midday Friday, provincial government spokesman Ahmad Naweed Froutan told local media.

No official statement was released by government to confirm the exact number of deaths as of Saturday night.

"Our estimates show that hundreds of people were buried under the mud and rubble triggered by landslide. It has been very difficult to give you a clear number of deaths and missing now," disaster official Dehqan said.

More than 4,500 villagers were evacuated to higher locations in the area surrounded by muddy hills and are living in tents. Rescue teams and security forces are distributing food and clean water to them, Dehqan said. Over 230 tons of flour had reached the village and would be distributed to villagers soon.

"I had gone to village bazaar. After I backed I could not find my home. My house turned to a grave for my four children and wife. They are under tons of mud. I cannot see their dead bodies. I do not know where to stay tonight," Peer Qual, the only survivor of a family, told Xinhua at the site.

Sunday 04 May 2014

http://english.cntv.cn/2014/05/04/ARTI1399162866729620.shtml

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Only 4 missing in Washington State mudslide as medical examiner identifies more bodies

The death toll from the massive mudslide that hit the Washington town of Oso last month has risen to 39, officials said Wednesday.

The Snohomish County medical examiner's office said it was identifying the three bodies most recently discovered and notifying families. The sheriff's office said it has removed one name from the missing list, which previously stood at seven.

Officials didn't say whether one of the most recently recovered bodies led to the change in the missing list.

One body was found Monday and two were found Tuesday in the southeast corner of the debris field where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has erected a berm in the past week, said Koshare Eagle, a spokeswoman for the incident management team.

The 3,000-foot-long berm, made of 20,000 tons of rock, gravel and dirt, acts like a levee and allowed standing water to be pumped back into the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River so searchers could enter the area, the corps said.

Searching the debris with dogs and recovering bodies continues to be the main job after the March 22 landslide buried dozens of homes in the community about 55 miles northeast of Seattle.

Meanwhile, engineers are using GPS to map the area as the state Transportation Department makes plans to clear a mile-long stretch of highway that was covered with mud and trees up to 25 feet deep.

The slide blocks the direct route between Interstate 5 and the nearby town of Darrington. The Transportation Department held meetings in Darrington and Oso to talk with residents about the highway. A third meeting was scheduled for Wednesday evening in Arlington.

Transportation officials have said it might take one to three months to clear the highway, but it may be fall before repairs are made and the highway reopens.

Friday 18 April 2014

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/world/Death+toll+Washington+mudslide+rises+medical+examiner+works/9746369/story.html

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Number of missing in Washington mudslide drops

The number of people missing in the massive Washington state landslide has dropped to six.

The Snohomish County sheriff’s office said Wednesday it has removed one name from the missing list. Earlier Wednesday, officials announced that the death toll had risen to 39.

The Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said it was identifying the three bodies most recently discovered and notifying families. They could be among those listed as missing, but officials didn’t say if one of them led to the list being whittled down.

Incident management team spokeswoman Koshare Eagle says one body was found Monday and two were found Tuesday in the southeast corner of the debris field where the Corps of Engineers erected a berm last week.

Wednesday 17 April 2014

http://koin.com/2014/04/16/number-missing-washington-mudslide-drops/

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37 bodies recovered in Oso landslide; 7 names remain on missing list

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office has received a total of 37 bodies from the Oso mudslide, although seven other people are still listed as missing since the March 22 disaster.

The death toll rose to 37 Tuesday morning, as searchers continued to scour the massive debris field for more victims.

The full list of the identified fatalities is available at the bottom of this story. One body remains unidentified. The slide leveled at least 35 houses and 14 other homes and dammed the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River on March 22.

The debris field stretches over one square mile. Some survivors were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the mudslide on that Saturday morning, but hundreds of searchers, including local volunteers scouring the area for family members and friends, and specially trained dogs have found no signs of life since then.

http://q13fox.com/2014/04/15/church-services-honor-mudslide-victims-painful-search-enters-2nd-week/

Tuesday 15 April 2014

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At least six dead and more missing in Tajik mudslide

Six children have been killed and at least seven people are missing and presumed dead as a result of a mudslide in south Tajikistan, an emergency ministry spokesman told Reuters on Sunday.

Landslides and spring floods are common in Tajikistan, the poorest country in Central Asia, as over 90 percent of its territory is mountainous.

The mudslide struck on Saturday night in a village around 230 km (150 miles) south of the Tajik capital Dushanbe, near the border with Afghanistan.

"The slide came in the middle of night which is why there are so many victims. We have recovered six bodies so far. They were all children," spokesman Orif Nozimov said.

Locals are working with emergency services to excavate a house buried in mud, Nozimov said, adding that the death toll could be higher than the 13 estimated so far.

Sunday 13 April 2014

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/04/13/tajikistan-mudslide-idINDEEA3C05P20140413

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3 more victims from mudslide identified Thursday; death toll stands at 36

Three more victims of Washington’s mudslide were identified Thursday, including a man who was previously listed as a “John Doe” on the missing list. The official death toll remained at 36 Thursday, with eight other people missing.

The medical examiner’s office said Michael W. Pearson was previously listed as an unidentified “John Doe” who had extensive dental work with gold fillings.

Though crews are making their way and finding bodies, eight people remained on the missing list as of Thursday, April 10. The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office asked the public to contact them if they know the whereabouts of anyone on the missing list.

The slide leveled at least 35 houses and 14 other homes and dammed the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River on March 22.

The debris field stretches over one square mile. Some survivors were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the mudslide on that Saturday morning, but hundreds of searchers, including local volunteers scouring the area for family members and friends, and specially trained dogs have found no signs of life since then.

Friday 11 April 2014

Read more: http://q13fox.com/2014/04/10/church-services-honor-mudslide-victims-painful-search-enters-2nd-week/

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