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California mudslide: at least 13 killed after heavy rains pound Santa Barbara California mudslide: at least a dozen killed after rains pound Santa Barbara
(about 5 hours later)
At least 13 people were killed and homes were swept from their foundations on Tuesday as heavy rain sent mud and boulders sliding down hills stripped of vegetation by southern California’s recent wildfires. At least 15 people were killed and homes were swept from their foundations on Tuesday as heavy rain sent mud and boulders sliding down hills stripped of vegetation by southern California’s recent wildfires.
Rescue crews used helicopters to lift people to safety because of blocked roads, and firefighters slogged through waist-high mud to pull a muck-covered 14-year-old girl out of the ruins of a home in Montecito, north-west of Los Angeles, where she had been trapped for hours. She was taken away on a stretcher.Rescue crews used helicopters to lift people to safety because of blocked roads, and firefighters slogged through waist-high mud to pull a muck-covered 14-year-old girl out of the ruins of a home in Montecito, north-west of Los Angeles, where she had been trapped for hours. She was taken away on a stretcher.
Most deaths were believed to have occurred in Montecito, a wealthy enclave that is home to such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres, said Santa Barbara County spokesman David Villalobos. At least 25 people were injured.Most deaths were believed to have occurred in Montecito, a wealthy enclave that is home to such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres, said Santa Barbara County spokesman David Villalobos. At least 25 people were injured.
Several houses were destroyed, and residents were unaccounted for in neighborhoods hard to reach because of downed trees and power lines, he said. The mud was reported to be up to 5ft (1.5 meters) deep in places. Those numbers could increase when the search is deepened and expanded, with a major search-and-rescue team arriving from nearby Los Angeles County and help from the coastguard and national guard along with law enforcement.
The mud was unleashed in the dead of night by flash flooding in the steep, fire-scarred Santa Ynez Mountains. Burned-over zones are especially susceptible to destructive mudslides because scorched earth doesn’t absorb water well and the land is easily eroded when there are no shrubs. They will focus first on finding survivors.
“We’re performing multiple rescues. There will be more,” Zaniboni said, adding that some of those brought to safety were buried in mud. There was a backlog of scores of callers requesting help. “Right now our assets are focused on determining if anyone is still alive in any of those structures that have been damaged,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.
Sally Brooks said a “boulder slide” occurred outside her home in nearby Carpinteria in the dead of night. “We were laying in bed listening to the rain, and out of nowhere our bed just started shaking, and we could hear just this, like, thunder,” she told KTLA-TV. The sheriff said “at least several dozen homes that have been either destroyed or severely damaged, and likely many other ones are in areas that are as-yet inaccessible.”
Photos posted on social media showed upside-down cars along debris-clogged roads and mud waist-deep in living rooms. Forecasters said the maximum rainfall occurred in a 15-minute span starting at 3.30am near the Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria areas of Santa Barbara County. He said it’s likely they will find more people in that destruction.
Montecito got more than a half-inch in five minutes, while Carpinteria received 0.86 inches in 15 minutes. The search for the missing whose numbers are uncertain continued through the night and then was to intensify after daylight Wednesday, authorities said. The storm cleared out and was no longer a hindrance.
Crews worked to clear debris from roads across the Los Angeles metropolitan area, including a key stretch of US 101 that was brought to a standstill along the border of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Nearly 30 miles of the highway were shut down at one point. Most deaths were believed to have occurred in Montecito, said Santa Barbara County spokesman David Villalobos.
The storm walloped much of the state with damaging winds and thunderstorms. Downtown San Francisco got a record 3.15in (8cm) of rain on Monday, smashing the old mark of 2.36in (6cm) set in 1872. The wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles is home to such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres. Winfrey’s home survived the storm and slides.
A mud-caked 14-year-old girl was among the dozens rescued on the ground Tuesday. She was pulled from a collapsed Montecito home where she had been trapped for hours.
“I thought I was dead for a minute there,” the dazed girl could be heard saying on video posted by KNBC-TV before she was taken away on a stretcher.
Twenty people were hospitalized and four were described as “severely critical” by Dr Brett Wilson of Santa Barbara Cottage hospital.
The mud was unleashed in the dead of night by flash flooding in the steep, fire-scarred Santa Ynez mountains. Burned-over zones are especially susceptible to destructive mudslides because scorched earth doesn’t absorb water well and the land is easily eroded when there are no shrubs.
The torrent arrived suddenly and with a sound some likened to a freight train as water carrying rocks and trees washed away cars and trashed homes.
Thomas Tighe said he stepped outside his Montecito home in the middle of the night and heard “a deep rumbling, an ominous sound I knew was … boulders moving as the mud was rising.”
Two cars were missing from his driveway and he watched two others slowly move sideways down the middle of the street “in a river of mud.” In daylight, Tighe was shocked to see a body pinned by muck against his neighbor’s home. He wasn’t sure who it was.
Authorities had been bracing for the possibility of catastrophic flooding because of heavy rain in the forecast for the first time in 10 months.
Evacuations were ordered beneath recently burned areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. But only an estimated 10 to 15% of people in a mandatory evacuation area of Santa Barbara County heeded the warning.
US Highway 101, the link connecting Ventura and Santa Barbara, looked like a muddy river and was expected to be closed for two days.
The worst of the rainfall occurred in a 15-minute span starting at 3.30am. Montecito got more than a half-inch in five minutes, while Carpinteria received nearly an inch in 15 minutes.
“All hell broke loose,” said Peter Hartmann, a dentist and photographer. “Power lines were down, high-voltage power lines, the large aluminum poles to hold those were snapped in half. Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants.”
Hartmann watched rescuers revive a toddler pulled unresponsive from the muck.
“It was a freaky moment to see her just covered in mud,” he said.