RALEIGH -- Crews are still searching for additional victims of Saturday's mudslide in Washington state. At least 14 people are confirmed dead, and dozens more have been reported missing.

Ben Mirus, Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences at UNC Chapel Hill, said rescue crews are working on unstable ground.

Mirus said, "Once they slide, then it's also all this unconsolidated sediment that flowed quickly down slope, and that's of course also not held together. The slope before it failed was held together by vegetation, but now all of that's been disrupted."

According to Mirus, landslide hazards are significant in the Tar Heel State, and North Carolina Geological Surveys have started compiling landslide hazard maps in various parts of the Appalachian Mountains.