There was little in the way of a warning before the rain-saturated ground in Washington's Cascade Mountains gave way, sending a wall of mud through a portion of the towns of Oso and Darrington.

With as many as 24 dead and up to 176 people unaccounted for in the massive landslide that struck Saturday, search and rescue crews are digging through rocks, dirt and debris that are up to 20 feet deep in some places in what has become a race against time to find survivors.

As the search goes on, the stories of those who escaped and those who are searching for loved ones have begun to emerge:

'Tapping underneath'

It was a 911 call at about 10:45 a.m. that first alerted authorities to a problem on State Route 530, a well-traveled two-lane road that connects rural mountain communities.

"It is really flooding bad," the caller said. "... There's a roof of a house on the road."

Then there was another call. And another.

Within minutes, authorities knew this was something bigger than just a flooded, blocked roadway.

One minute, Michael Landon told a 911 dispatcher, his neighbor's house and a house on the other side of it were there. The next, they were gone.

"I am standing in the area now, and I can hear them tapping underneath and yelling at us," he told a 911 dispatcher.