<p>But the death toll might be just as big - 14 dead and 176 are still missing as the result of a massive landslide in our state:</p>
<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023215066_mudslidemondayxml.html”>http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023215066_mudslidemondayxml.html</a></p>
<p>I’m relieved that the friends who live in the area are safe, and my heart goes out to everyone affected by the disaster. Please hold them in your thoughts.</p>
<p>I can’t believe 176 are still missing. That seems impossible, so many people? I just have to wonder if they’re counting every single person who is reported that people are unable to contact, and counting people who are fine. I cannot comprehend that many people actually under that slide.</p>
<p>With the river backing up, its like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
<a href=“http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023218326_mudslideweather1xml.html”>http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023218326_mudslideweather1xml.html</a>
Its weird that our youngest began her Wilderness First Responder training Saturday morning, just 30 miles north of the slide.
Its a lot to process, H worked closely with Gary Pfitzner, the pilot in the helicopter crash.
But you have to live life, it doesn’t stop for you. He took the day off to go skiing today, very therapeutic.</p>
<p>Now, I am sobbing, I just received an email notifying me that the man that was killed Friday at Mission Ridge was the volunteer president of the soccer club my daughter played for 10 years. He leaves his wife & two daughters.
=(( </p>
<p>EK, I’m sorry. </p>
<p>So sorry EK</p>
<p>All very awful. Prayers for you all.</p>
<p>How terrible. Thoughts and prayers for you and all there.</p>
<p>I haven’t been up that way to Snohomish in years, but I remember it as beautiful country. It’s sad that such scenic hillsides can create such tragedy.</p>
<p>How awful, EK! Two devastating pieces of news in a week. </p>
<p>I hope that the estimated numbers of missing people are not correct. </p>
<p>So sorry, EK. </p>
<p>Mother Nature has not been merciful of late. In another article from the Seattle Times–</p>
<p>“Since the 1950s, geological reports on the hill that buckled during the weekend in Snohomish County have included pessimistic analyses and the occasional dire prediction. But no language seems more prescient than what appears in a 1999 report filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, warning of “the potential for a large catastrophic failure.””</p>
<p><a href=“http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023218573_mudslidewarningsxml.html”>http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2023218573_mudslidewarningsxml.html</a></p>
<p>So sorry, EK. This is just terrible and I’m so sad about it.</p>
<p>EK, big hugs to you.</p>
<p>The landslide covered a square mile with mud, up to 20 feet deep in some places. Wow… I really, really hope that at least some of the missing people are safe!</p>
<p>It has been a couple of years but I like to fish the Stillaguamish River along that road. The one woman who was pulled from the mud said there used to be a gravel mine where the slide occurred, a likely contributing factor. Our soil is glacial till, a mixture of round rocks and sand, and is prone to sliding when saturated. Prayers for peace for all the families affected.</p>
<p>One of my friends on facebook, was the First, First Responder.
Ill ask him if I can share his impression.
How to help.
<a href=“Washington Trails Association”>http://www.wta.org/signpost/how-to-help-wake-tragic-landslide-530-oso</a></p>
<p>^^But the thing is, it really doesn’t help these people at all to donate to the Red Cross. Your donations go to the general fund, not to a specific tragedy. I think I’m right about this, that it is not designated. I want to find out about volunteering to search, but I’m afraid that by the time I get back home, it will be too late. I don’t even want to look at any list of who is missing. I don’t want to find someone I know there.</p>
<p>I am sorry about all the tragedies affecting you lately, ek. Too many.</p>
<p>I agree it doesn’t help to donate to Red Cross.
Guess I should have looked at link first.
I also am starting to feel like cobrat, but it doesn’t feel like I am the epicenter of tragedies, it’s just that I have lived in Seattle a long time.
I hope that the weather cooperates and it doesn’t rain too much more.</p>
<p>I’m starting to have the same feelings that I did about 9/11. That if I even spend too much time watching this that I can’t even bear it, so I’m just turning the tv off. I hope so much that they have overestimated the number of missing people massively.</p>
<p>This rain is not helping…</p>
<p>Its a little tough to tell the scale of the before and after aerial photos, but what is clear and astounding is that the debris from the slide came completely across the river to do the damage. I think I would have felt relatively safe from any threat contained in that particular hillside. It appears to have traveled at least several hundred yards laterally, not to mention the downhill distance. </p>
<p>I heard 1 sq mile area with mud 40 feet deep at places. I can’t imagine the anguish of the family.</p>