Rev. Michael De Luca offers a prayer before rescue workers and volunteers pause during a state-wide moment of silence to honor the victims of the Oso mud slide in front of the Darrington, Wash., on Saturday, March 29, 2014.DARRINGTON, Wash. – The search by heavy equipment, dogs and bare hands for victims from the deadly Washington mudslide was going “all the way to the dirt” as crews looked for anything to provide answers for family and friends a week after a small mountainside community was destroyed.
All work on the debris field halted briefly Saturday for a moment of silence to honor those lost. Gov. Jay Inslee had asked people across Washington to pause at 10:37 a.m., the time the huge slide struck on March 22, destroying a neighborhood in the community of Oso north of Seattle. Authorities say they have found at least 25 bodies and 90 remain missing.
“People all over stopped work –all searchers — in honor of that moment, so people we are searching for know we are serious,” Snohomish County Fire District 1 battalion chief Steve Mason said.
An American flag had been run up a tree and then down to half-staff at the debris site, he said.
Among the dozens of missing are a man in his early 20s, Adam Farnes, and his mother, Julie.