Search crews using dogs, bulldozers and their bare hands kept slogging through the mess of broken wood and mud again in Oso, Washington, on Wednesday, looking for more bodies or anyone who might still be alive nearly five days after a mudslide destroyed the community, according to Reuters.
Authorities have acknowledged they might have to leave some victims buried in the debris some 55 miles northeast of Seattle, Reuters reported.
Authorities on Wednesday reduced to number of people missing to 90, according to Reuters. That number had been fluctuating and at one point reached its highest at 220.
Besides the 90 confirmed missing, authorities are looking into a list of 35 people who may or may not have been in the area at the time of the slide, Snohomish County's emergency management director, John Pennington, said, Reuters reported.
No victims were recovered Wednesday, leaving the official death toll at 16, with an additional eight bodies located but not recovered, Pennington said, according to Reuters. Authorities said they expected to update the official toll Thursday morning.
The debris field is about a square mile and 30 to 40 feet deep in places, with a moon-like surface that includes quicksand-like muck, rain-slickened mud and ice, Reuters reported. The terrain is difficult to navigate on foot and makes it treacherous or impossible to bring in heavy equipment.
To make matters worse, the pile is laced with other hazards that include fallen trees, propane and septic tanks, twisted vehicles and countless shards of shattered homes, according to Reuters.
A death certificate, issued by the state, is legal proof that someone has died and families often need them to settle their affairs, but the authority to issue them starts with a county medical examiner or coroner, said Donn Moyer, spokesman for the Washington State Department of Health, Reuters reported.
If and when it appears there is no chance of finding someone, people can ask the county to start that process, according to Reuters.
Two Washington National Guard Blackhawk helicopters arrived at the site Wednesday to relieve sheriff's helicopter crews that had been working since Saturday, Reuters reported. The Blackhawks' sole mission is body removal, said Bill Quistorf, chief pilot for the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
Other survivors began to grow impatient Wednesday that they weren't allowed to return to the sites of their homes to search for their valuables and keepsakes, according to Reuters.
