Authorities say they have 108 reports of people missing or unaccounted for after Saturday's huge landslide in the north-western US state of Washington.

Eight bodies have been recovered so far after the 54m (177ft) deep wall of mud swept near the town of Oso, about 90km (55 miles) north of Seattle.

Search crews have worked day and night, using helicopters in the dangerous conditions that destroyed 30 homes.

Several people, including an infant, were critically injured.

'Situation very grim'
Snohomish County emergency management director John Pennington said the figure did not necessarily represent the total number of injuries or fatalities.

He said the list had been consolidated from a number of sources.

"It's a soft 108," Mr Pennington told a news conference, reports the Associated Press news agency.

"We have not found anyone alive on this pile since Saturday," he added.

Snohomish County fire chief Travis Hots told reporters: "The situation is very grim."

'Gone in three seconds'
Authorities have continued their search-and-rescue operations amid a tangled debris field that Washington Governor Jay Inslee labelled "a square mile of total devastation".

An 81-year-old man and a six-month-old boy were said to be in critical condition at a Seattle hospital on Sunday.

An eyewitness told the Daily Herald that he was driving on the road near Oso and had to quickly brake to avoid the mudslide.

"I just saw the darkness coming across the road. Everything was gone in three seconds," Paulo Falcao told the newspaper.

Robin Youngblood, another witness, told the Seattle Times: "All of a sudden there was a wall of mud. Then it hit and we were rolling.

"The house was in sticks. We were buried under things, and we dug ourselves out."

The landslide cut off the city of Darrington and clogged the north fork of the Stillaguamish River.

This prompted fears of severe flooding downstream if the build-up of water behind the debris breaks through suddenly.

The authorities say the landslide was caused by recent heavy rain.

The area has had problems in the past with unstable land.

The number of people still missing in Saturday's catastrophic mudslide in the US state of Washington has dropped to 90, authorities have said.

The official death toll remained at 24 on Wednesday night, including eight bodies authorities say they have located but been unable to retrieve.

A 177ft (54m) wall of mud buried the town of Oso, north of Seattle.

Workers have been scouring the area for survivors and victims, using search dogs, helicopters and laser imaging

Few answers
On Wednesday night, Snohomish County Emergency Management Director John Pennington told reporters the number of people unaccounted for had dropped to 90 from 176 the previous day, as dozens of people were found to be alive and well.

Additionally, at least 35 people are listed as having an unknown status, because authorities have been unable to determine whether they were in the area at the time of the mudslide.

"We need to take a step back and look at the magnitude of what happened," Mr Pennington said.

"The debris field is huge, it's complex, and it's dangerous. I don't think we have a lot of answers. All I can definitely say is that we have a number that is 90 and we're going to pursue that as much as we can."

The sudden, catastrophic mudslide on Saturday destroyed about 30 houses, temporarily damming a river and leaving a square-mile field of muck and debris in its wake.

"This disaster is so enormous, I sometimes think even the pictures don't always do it justice," said Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, who represents the area.

"The number of families that have been impacted, the number of people that they've lost, the number of people who are still missing. It's truly, truly heartbreaking."

'So many questions'
As a fifth day of searching came to a close, officials have said they have little expectation they will find anyone alive.

"It just generates so many questions if they don't find them," Becky Bach, whose brother and three other relatives are missing, told the Associated Press.

"I've never known anybody to die in a natural disaster. Do they issue death certificates?"

Local officials have begun turning away the streams of volunteers hoping to aid the search effort, Mr Pennington said.

And authorities said even the rescue dogs were growing fatigued.

The one sq-mile debris field is pocked with deep pits of water and strewn with sharp and dangerous wreckage, including fallen trees, propane and septic tanks, destroyed vehicles and smashed timber.

Survivors were last pulled alive from the mud on Saturday.

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
I heard a news story on the radio last night about the frequency of mudslides in that area. Apparently there was one as recently as 2006, and that area has had them every 10-15 years going back to the 1940's and 50's with numerous reports filed by area scientists in the last half century predicting more slides in that region. None of those previous slides had been on the scale of this one, but it led the reporter to question why the local government continued to approve building permits for that region.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:
I heard a news story on the radio last night about the frequency of mudslides in that area. Apparently there was one as recently as 2006, and that area has had them every 10-15 years going back to the 1940's and 50's with numerous reports filed by area scientists in the last half century predicting more slides in that region. None of those previous slides had been on the scale of this one, but it led the reporter to question why the local government continued to approve building permits for that region.

Probably because rarely does a local government consult, nor have the funds "available" to consult actual scientists in regards to these things. I havent looked, but I do wonder if there are houses above where the slide was, as often times, with housing developments, the removal of trees and natural vegetation erodes the strength and integrity of a hillside.