Mudslide Toll Reaches 29 as State Seeks New Aid

Seattle Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright, right, and Bryan Walters, third from right, hand off footballs to kids Monday, March 31, 2014, at a community gathering in Darrington, Wash. The NFL football players and other team officials visited Darrington to lend support to the town, which is located near the site of the deadly mudslide that hit the community of Oso,Wash. on March 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

DARRINGTON, Wash. (AP) — Estimated financial losses from the deadly Washington mudslide that has killed at least 29 people have reached $10 million, Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday in a letter asking the federal government for a major disaster declaration.

In seeking additional federal help following one of the deadliest landslides in U.S. history, Inslee said about 30 families need assistance with housing, along with personal and household goods. The estimated losses include nearly $7 million in structures and more than $3 million in their contents, Inslee's letter said.

The Snohomish County medical examiner's office has officially identified 22 people.

Twenty people are still listed as missing following the March 22 slide that destroyed a rural mountainside community northeast of Seattle. That's down from the 30 people officials previously considered missing.

"There's been an exhaustive effort by the detectives to narrow the list down to one that they feel comfortable releasing," Haakenson said.

"These are 22 people whose loved ones are grieving," he said. "We want to do all we can to find them and put some closure in place for their families."

He said there could be some overlap between the list of missing and the handful of victims who have not been positively identified by the medical examiner.

Steve Harris, a division supervisor for the search effort, said Monday that search teams have been learning more about the force of the slide, helping them better locate victims in a debris field that is 70 feet deep in places.

"There's a tremendous amount of force and energy behind this," Harris said of the slide.

Harris said search dogs are the primary tool for finding victims, and searchers are finding human remains four to six times per day. Sometimes crews only find partial remains, which makes the identification process harder.

Inslee's request Monday also seeks federal help with funeral expenses, and mental health care programs for survivors, volunteers, community members and first responders.

He also is asking for access to disaster housing, disaster grants, disaster-related unemployment insurance and crisis counseling programs for those in Snohomish County and for the Stillaguamish, Sauk-Suiattle and Tulalip Indian tribes.

Meanwhile, a dozen members of the Seattle Seahawks football team and Seattle Sounders FC soccer team visited Monday with more than 300 children, parents and area residents at the Darrington Community Center.

Players said they signed autographs, tossed footballs and kicked soccer balls in an effort to bring some smiles to an area hit by tragedy.

"To be able to offer a little bit of a release or a distraction from what's going on, I mean that's all you can do," Seahawks linebacker Malcolm Smith said.

Sounders forward Kenny Cooper said he played pickup soccer with the kids.

One child, 10-year-old Jacob Spelman, wore an autographed bright green hat commemorating the Seahawks' Super Bowl victory as he spoke to reporters after the visit.

"I just feel like they care and that they would like it if we felt better and they came to help us," he said.

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Baumann reported from Seattle.