A group of first responders from San Diego County will join the search effort underway in Washington in the aftermath of a deadly landslide near the towns of Oso and Darrington.
San Diego Urban Search and Rescue-California Task Force 8 will send four of its members to the area to help search for more than 100 people missing since Saturday’s massive landslide. Snohomish County search and rescue crews have confirmed 14 deaths, and say as many at 176 are still unaccounted for.
The local team joining the emergency effort consists of two rescue workers from San Diego Fire Department, one from San Marcos Fire Department, and one from Chula Vista Fire Department, according to a SDFD tweet.
Officials warn the death toll could rise. The slide cut a swath a mile wide, according to a news report in USA Today, as it swept through the area about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. A Snohomish County fire chief called the situation very grim. Survivors have not been found since Saturday.
The USA Today report also says several people have been critically injured, about 30 homes have been lost, and debris is blocking a 1-mile stretch of State Route 530.
The San Diego teams’ expertise is “confined space search and rescue” where structures have collapsed, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue web site. Task force members have assisted in a number of disasters nationwide, including at the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Members of the team come from a variety of emergency and non-emergency agencies and companies in the Greater San Diego region.
