Churchgoers Pray for Mudslide Victims

ARLINGTON, Wash. - Local churches were holding services on Sunday to offer prayers for the victims of last week's devastating mudslide in Washington state and rescue workers as the death toll from the disaster kept rising.

'It will be good for people to go and get what they need to get out of it,' said Gordy Beil, a 63-year-old photographer and painter who lives about 10 miles from Oso. Beil said he anticipated a painful service at the Episcopal church he was planning to attend.

Don Little, 66, a Redmond, Wash., resident in town to visit his son, said he would attend the Church of God of Prophecy in Darrington, where one of the congregants has a husband among the missing and is having a hard time grasping that he is gone.

'She's still hoping beyond hope that they find him alive, and everybody's wishing for that,' Little said.

Funeral preparations were also beginning for those lost in the tragedy.

At the Weller Funeral Home in the town of Arlington, only a few miles from the site of the mudslide, staff members who typically plan two to three funerals weekly are preparing for 12 this week.

'Some people who have come here, they've only found one family member, and they're now searching for the fourth or fifth or sixth member of the family,' said Diane Wilson-Simon, who helps families plan services at the funeral home.

No one has been pulled alive from the rubble since the day the landslide hit, when at least eight people were injured but survived. Rescuers have found no signs of life since then.

Ron Brown, a Snohomish County official involved in search-and-rescue operations, said the debris field may end up being the final resting place for some victims, who may be buried so thoroughly they cannot be found.

'That's going to be hallowed ground out there,' he said.

The presumed body count rose to 28 on Saturday from the March 22 catastrophe, with the official tally of those killed now 18 based on bodies extricated and identified by medical examiners.

But despite the grim toll, news also came that the number of missing fell to 30 from 90, as officials were able to account for dozens of people as 'safe and well.'

- Reuters

First published March 30 2014, 10:21 AM