Washington Landslide Recovery Enters 5th Day, Death Toll Rises to 24

As the search for missing people buried by a Washington state landslide enters its fifth day, 24 people have been reported dead and dozens more are still missing in the community of Oso.

On Tuesday rescue workers found 10 more bodies, recovering two two and locating eight more amid the debris, The Associated Press reported.

There are still 176 reports of missing people, but that figure may include duplicate reports and officials are trying to come up with a more accurate number.

No one has been found alive in the rubble pile - which spans across a square mile - since Saturday.

Roughly a dozen survivors remain hospitalized from their injuries, The Daily Herald of Everett, Wash., reported, adding that some rescue workers have been injured, including one person who was struck in the head by debris kicked up by a helicopter blade.

Steady rain Tuesday made already difficult search and rescue conditions worse, with quicksand-like mud and patches of debris as slick as ice.

More than 200 rescue personnel are on scene, including the National Guard. President Barack Obama has signed a emergency declaration and $1 million in federal aid will be directed to the area.

Digging through the rubble with hands and shovels, and search and rescue dogs, has been the most effective recovery method, The Daily Herald reported.

As time passes, the possibility of finding survivors is waning, but there is still hope, officials said.

"We haven't lost hope that there's a possibility that we can find somebody alive in some pocket area," Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief Travis Hots told the AP.

The landslide occurred about 10:30 a.m. on March 22, claiming nearly 30 homes and causing damage to many more along State Route 530, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. Some homes that survived the landslide went on to become flooded after the huge swath of debris forced a river to reroute itself.

Landslides are not unknown in the area. In 2006, part of the same hillside broke away and dammed a river just south of the neighborhood where Saturday's disaster occurred, The Daily Herald reported, adding that no one was hurt in that incident.

A report by The Seattle Times indicated that at least some experts have voiced concern over the possibility of a major landslide in the area. A 1999 report filed with the US Army Corps of Engineers said the area has the potential for a large, catastrophic landslide. The authors of that report, Daniel J. Miller and his wife, Lynne Rodgers Miller, told The Seattle Times that they knew right away where the landslide occurred when they first heard news of the incident.

"We've known it would happen at some point," Daniel Miller told The Seattle Times. "We just didn't know when."