Mudslide death toll rises to 18; number of missing drops to 30

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A worker navigates the muck left behind by a landslide in Snohomish County, Wash. (Ted S. Warren / Associated Press)

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Searchers head toward the site of the mudslide in Oso, Wash., on Friday. (Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

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A helicopter leaves the Darrington, Wash., airport on Friday as part of the emergency response to the massive mudslide in nearby Oso. (David Ryder / Getty Images)

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Searchers work on the side of a hill Friday at the site of the deadly mudslide in Oso, Wash. (Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

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A customer lays out a T-shirt for sale at a sporting goods store in Arlington, Wash., with proceeds to go to mudslide victims. (Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)

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Volunteer Carol Messingale sorts through goods donated for mudslide relief in Darrington, Wash. (David Ryder / Getty Images)

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Workers comb through debris at the site of the deadly mudslide in Oso, Wash. (Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

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Snoqualmie Indian tribe members Toby Strotz, right, and his sister, Chris Strotz Jacobs, embrace in Darrington, Wash., after the tribe announced a donation of $275,000 for mudslide relief efforts, including for local fire departments, the Red Cross, and others. Fire District 24 Chief Dennis Fenstermaker, left, thanks members of the tribe for the donation. (David Ryder / Getty Images)

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Claire Logan, right, carries supplies to help set up an evacuation center at Post Middle School in Arlington. (Mark Harrison / Seattle Times via AP)

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Kristopher Langton shares a moment with his son, Kristian Langton, 5 months, at a temporary Red Cross shelter at the Darrington Community Center in Darrington, Wash. (David Ryder / Getty Images)

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Amber Tollenaar, right, hugs the Rev. Janet Loyd at a temporary Red Cross shelter set up for landslide survivors at the Darrington Community Center in Darrington, Wash. (David Ryder / Getty Images)

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Elaine Young hugs her dog, Bo, days after the mudslide narrowly missed her home. (David Ryder / Getty Images)

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A body is carried out of a home destroyed by the mudslide. (Joshua Trujillo / Associated Press)

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Workers try to clear debris from State Route 530 on the western edge of the massive mudslide. (Ted S. Warren / Associated Press)

By Paresh Dave and Molly Hennessy-Fiske

March 29, 2014 6:51 PM PT

<i>This post has been updated. See note below for details.</i>

ARLINGTON, Wash. -- As they began a second week searching for victims of a deadly mudslide, officials on Saturday night dramatically lowered their count of the missing from 90 to 30.

Eighteen people have been confirmed dead by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner, up from 17, a county emergency program manager, Jason Biermann, told reporters. Additional remains were found in the debris field Saturday, but had not been recovered or identified, he said.

[Updated, 7:00 p.m. March 29: The county said in a later statement that the remains were those of an additional victim and had been transported to the medical examiner’s office.]

Identifying victims has been made especially challenging because of the state of the remains found, the county acknowledged Saturday. “The slide hit with such force that often rescuers are not recovering whole victims,” Biermann said.

The drop in the number of missing brought some clarity to a question that has confounded the small cities of Oso, Darrington and Arlington this week. At one point, officials had collected more than 200 reports of people missing. They had emphasized that the number would likely diminish as duplicates were sorted out.

Officials were still holding out hope of finding victims alive on Saturday, calling their efforts both a rescue and recovery mission.

Workers Saturday were bagging belongings recovered from the tangle of brush and debris, shipping them out to be decontaminated, sorted, and returned to their owners if possible. They have found classical music records, gun safes, wallets, ATVs and snapshots.

Hundreds of photographs salvaged from the mud were assembled on a table, shielded from the rain by a white tent. More than an inch of rain had fallen in the area between 5 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service said, adding difficulty to the digging and sifting.

Mudslide death toll rises to 18; number of missing drops to 30

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