Washington Mudslide Leaves An Unidentified Amount Of Missing Persons As Search Continues

The number of people missing could not be given by authorities two days after a mudslide hit dozens of homes and killed at least eight people in Washington state, heightening fears that the casualty toll would grow well beyond the confirmed deaths, according to the Associated Press.

Emergency management officials expressed doubt that anyone else would be plucked alive from the muck that engulfed dozens of homes when a rain-soaked hillside along State Route 530 near Oso, Washington, gave way on Saturday morning, the AP reported.

Meanwhile, concern lingered about flooding from water backing up behind a crude dam of mud and rubble dumped into a river by the slide in an area about 55 miles northeast of Seattle, according to the AP.

"The situation is very grim," said Travis Hots, Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief, the AP reported. "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."

Several dozen homes in all were believed to have sustained some damage from the slide, John Pennington, director of the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management, told reporters at a command post in the nearby town of Arlington, according to the AP.

More than 100 properties in all were swept by the cascading mud, 49 of which had a house, cabin or mobile home on them, the AP reported. At least 25 of those homes were believed to have been occupied year round, and 10 others were part-time or vacation homes, Pennington said.

The search for victims resumed under partly cloudy skies on Monday after treacherous quicksand-like conditions forced rescue workers to suspend their efforts at dusk on Sunday, according to the AP. Some workers, mired in mud up to their armpits, had to be dragged to safety.

A spokesman for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said eight bodies had been found by Sunday evening in the square-mile disaster zone of tangled debris, rocks, trees and mud, the AP reported. Eight more people were injured in the landslide.