Washington Landslide Death Toll Rises, More Than 100 Could Still Be Missing [VIDEO]

At least 14 people are dead and dozens more are missing after a weekend landslide buried a Washington state neighborhood in the community of Oso.

Rescue workers on scene have been searching though the debris and rubble since Saturday, but as time passes hopes of finding survivors is fading.

"As the Sun set on the third day of rescue operations, emergency personnel conceded that they expect it to turn into a recovery," The Daily Herald of Everett, Wash. reported late Monday.

Difficult and dangerous conditions have hampered the rescue effort. There have been reports of rescue workers having to be rescued themselves after being buried up to their armpits in mud.

"Our crews are up against an enormous challenge. It's like quicksand out there," Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said, according to USA Today. And searching through the night for victims is too dangerous. A storm expected in the area later Tuesday will also put a strain on rescue efforts; up to four inches of rain over the next several days could create more mud and a risk of flooding.

No one has been found alive in the rubble pile - which spans across a square mile - since Saturday.

President Barack Obama has signed a emergency declaration and $1 million in federal aid will be directed to the area. The National Guard is also on scene.

There are 176 reports of missing people, but that figure may include duplicate reports and officials are trying to come up with a more accurate number.

The landslide occurred about 10:30 a.m. on March 22, claiming nearly 30 homes and causing damage to many more along State Route 530, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. Some homes that survived the landslide went on to become flooded after the huge swath of debris forced a river to reroute itself.

Landslides are not unknown in the area. In 2006, part of the same hillside broke away and dammed a river just south of the neighborhood where Saturday's disaster occurred, The Daily Herald reported, adding that no one was hurt in that incident.

A report by The Seattle Times indicated that at least some experts have voiced concern over the possibility of a major landslide in the area. A 1999 report filed with the US Army Corps of Engineers said the area has the potential for a large, catastrophic landslide. The authors of that report, Daniel J. Miller and his wife, Lynne Rodgers Miller, told The Seattle Times that they knew right away where the landslide occurred when they first heard news of the incident.

"We've known it would happen at some point," Daniel Miller told The Seattle Times. "We just didn't know when."