Truly horrible, no hope for these poor people ..
From
Global Disaster Watch website:
SEVERE RAIN STORMS, FLOODING, LANDSLIDES -
Washington - Officials now say as many as 176 people may remain unaccounted for after the 177ft (54m) wall of mud hit near the town of Oso, north of Seattle. Search crews have worked day and night, using helicopters and laser imaging. But officials admit they have little hope of finding survivors in the muck.
The slide "basically cut a mountain in two" and deposited it on the town below. Nothing in the path of the slide was still standing. "It's that absolute devastation that causes us all real pain." The official list of the missing stood at 176, but they did not think the final death toll would be so high, because some of those listed as unaccounted for would be found to be alive, and other names would prove to be duplicates.
The landslide left behind a cliff known as a head scarp 183m high. "This is one of the biggest landslides I've seen." Authorities have continued their search-and-rescue operations amid a tangled, water-logged field of muck and debris, using rescue dogs, aerial photography and laser imaging to aide the search.
Officials said the conditions were treacherous, and the threat of further landslides on Monday forced the authorities to pull search-and-rescue workers back from the scene briefly until scientists determined there was no further risk. "Right now it's stable, it's in good shape, and the good news is the rescue can continue."
More than 30 homes were destroyed and more than half the town of Oso is missing - a recent census put its population at 180. The landslide cut off the city of Darrington and clogged the north fork of the Stillaguamish River. The river had begun to flow over the debris, relieving the water pressure in the part of the river blocked behind the landslide and lessening the chances of a catastrophic flood if the water should break through all at once.
The authorities say the landslide was caused by recent heavy rain, although the area's terrain is made up of unstable glacial sediment and has been subject to landslides since the last ice age. Landslides occurred in the area in 2006 and 1969. (photos & map at link)
Meteorological Bomb Brewing for Canada on Wednesday - The most powerful Nor'easter of the year will gather strength over the waters offshore of Virginia on Tuesday, then head northeast and bring damaging winds, heavy rain and snow, and a substantial storm surge to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland Canada on Wednesday.
The storm will brush Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, bringing at least six inches of snow and wind gusts of up to 60 mph. A Blizzard Watch and Coastal Flood Watch are posted for Cape Cod and Nantucket Island, where a NOAA storm surge model run using the winds from the 00Z run of the GFS model predicted almost a 2 foot surge could occur on Wednesday morning. A surge of this magnitude is capable of causing minor to moderate flooding.
As the storm pulls away from the Mid-Atlantic coast on Tuesday evening, it will undergo EXPLOSIVE DEEPENING, meeting the criteria of a "meteorological bomb" - a storm that deepens by at least 24 mb in 24 hours. In fact, the Monday morning 00Z run of the European model shows the pressure falling by more than double that pace - deepening by an extraordinary 40 mb in just eighteen hours, ending at 2 pm EDT Wednesday.
When the Nor'easter hits Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on Wednesday evening, the central pressure of the storm is expected to be between 956 - 960 mb, similar to the central pressure of a strong Category 2 hurricane. However, Nor'easters do not form eyewalls with intense winds concentrated over a small area, and this Nor'easter's strong winds will be spread out over a large area.
I doubt we'll see sustained hurricane-force winds of 74 mph or greater at any land stations, but sustained winds of 60 - 70 mph are likely in some locations, which will be capable of causing widespread power outages and considerable tree damage. A storm surge of 2 - 4 feet may also cause coastal damage and moderate flooding, if the surge arrives at high tide. (map at link)
Here:
http://globaldisasterwatch.blogspot.fr/
