News

108 Missing After Washington Mudslide

by Andrea Garcia-Vargas

On Saturday, there was a gigantic mudslide in Washington state's Snohomish County, killing eight people. Initial counts put the number of missing people at 18, but unfortunately the estimates Monday are far larger. Authorities have announced that up to 108 people may be missing after the mudslide.

48 hours after the tragedy, officials are beginning to lose hope, as Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief Travis Hots told Reuters.

The situation is very grim. We're still holding out hope that we're going to be able to find people that may still be alive. But keep in mind we haven't found anybody alive on this pile since Saturday in the initial stages of our operation.

The debris and mud has been measured at 15 feet deep in some areas. Still, the count of 108 missing people may go down: John Pennington, the director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, raised the possibility that reports of missing persons had been overlapping.

The 135-wide-by-180-long natural disaster (around 1 square mile) happened as a result of heavy rainstorms that led to rising waters, which toppled embankments along State Route 530 (55 miles away from Seattle.) About 49 homes were damaged from the event.