- Debris blocks 300 people from leaving Romero Canyon area of Montecito
- "It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere," official says
Southern California mudslides
begin quote from:
15 dead in California storms as mudslides wipe out homes
Southern California mudslides: Hundreds still await rescue; 17 dead
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Rivers of mud wreak havoc in California
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Rivers of mud wreak havoc in California 01:14
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(CNN)The
founder of a Catholic school is among the 17 people killed in deadly
mudslides and flooding in Southern California. Hundreds of rescuers and
dogs continued searching for people Wednesday, slogging through mud and
debris.
Roy Rohter,
84, and his wife, Theresa, were swept from their Montecito home, the
headmaster said. Theresa was rescued, said Michael Van Hecke, headmaster
of St. Augustine Academy in Ventura, which Rohter founded in 1994.
Authorities
have not confirmed the names of the dead. Children are among the
victims, said Santa Barbara County fire spokesman Mike Eliason.
Heavy
rains early Tuesday caused rivers of mud and debris to run down from
hillsides in Santa Barbara County, demolishing homes in the affluent
seaside community of Montecito weeks after wildfires Many people are on edge, awaiting news about missing loved ones.
Latest developments
• Deadly storm: The 17 deaths were reported in Santa Barbara County, authorities said.
• More missing: Officials said 13 people were unaccounted for.
• Rescue operation: More than 500 first responders and 10 dogs continued to search for people in Santa Barbara County.
• Hundreds of calls:
As the storm hit hard between 3 and 6 a.m. Tuesday, sheriff's office
dispatchers handled more than 600 phone calls for assistance, Sheriff
Bill Brown said.
• Rescues: Dozens of people have been rescued in Santa Barbara County, officials said. The US Coast Guard said it used helicopters Tuesday to collect people from rooftops, including a couple and their three children in Carpinteria.
A Coast Guard helicopter crew pulls a person onto a roof after mud overtook a house in Carpinteria.
• Injured: Twenty-eight people were hurt in Santa Barbara County, officials said.
• Destruction: Floodwaters and mudslides destroyed 100 homes and damaged another 300 residences in Santa Barbara County.
• Road closed:
US 101 in parts of Montecito and Santa Barbara will remain closed for
at least 48 hours because of the muddy debris covering it, authorities
said Tuesday.
Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A firefighter clears debris in Los Angeles on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A van is stuck in the mud in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A police vehicle drives across a flooded side road in Montecito, near the San Ysidro exit of Highway 101 on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Mud covers a road in Burbank on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Los Angeles firefighters work amid floodwaters and mud on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A member of the Long Beach search and rescue team looks for survivors in a car in Montecito on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Mud washes away personal belongings in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Rushing rainwater fills the Los Angeles River near downtown Los Angeles.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A
damaged home is seen in Montecito, California, on Wednesday, January
10. Heavy rains unleashed deadly mudslides Tuesday that damaged or swept
away dozens of homes in Southern California.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Part of a structure sits in a tree after being knocked off its foundation by the Montecito mudslide on January 10.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Kerry Mann navigates the large boulders and mudflow that destroyed her friend's home in Montecito.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A view of the 101 freeway from Olive Mill Road in Montecito.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Phillip Harnsberger crosses through mud from a flooded creek in Montecito on Tuesday, January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Mud fills the interior of a destroyed car in Burbank on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Runoff water from a creek floods Highway 101 in Montecito on January 9. Flooding forced many heavily traveled roads to close.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Reilly, a search dog with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, looks for victims in Montecito on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A firefighter clears debris in Los Angeles on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A van is stuck in the mud in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A police vehicle drives across a flooded side road in Montecito, near the San Ysidro exit of Highway 101 on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Mud covers a road in Burbank on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Los Angeles firefighters work amid floodwaters and mud on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A member of the Long Beach search and rescue team looks for survivors in a car in Montecito on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Mud washes away personal belongings in the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Rushing rainwater fills the Los Angeles River near downtown Los Angeles.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A
damaged home is seen in Montecito, California, on Wednesday, January
10. Heavy rains unleashed deadly mudslides Tuesday that damaged or swept
away dozens of homes in Southern California.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Part of a structure sits in a tree after being knocked off its foundation by the Montecito mudslide on January 10.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Kerry Mann navigates the large boulders and mudflow that destroyed her friend's home in Montecito.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
A view of the 101 freeway from Olive Mill Road in Montecito.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Phillip Harnsberger crosses through mud from a flooded creek in Montecito on Tuesday, January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Mud fills the interior of a destroyed car in Burbank on January 9.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Runoff water from a creek floods Highway 101 in Montecito on January 9. Flooding forced many heavily traveled roads to close.
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Photos: Deadly mudslides in Southern California
Reilly, a search dog with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, looks for victims in Montecito on January 9.
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'I just want to find my friend'
In Montecito, east of Santa Barbara, home after home is damaged or encircled by mounds of mud, furniture and fallen trees.
Diane
Brewer has hopes of finding a missing friend who was at home with her
boyfriend early Tuesday when a mudslide swept through the neighborhood.
Mud fillls a street Tuesday in Burbank, California, destroying cars and damaging property.
"For some reason, she opened the front door" and was swept away, Brewer said.
The boyfriend also was carried away and became stuck between boulders before being rescued, Brewer said.
Debris surrounds a house Wednesday in Montecito, California.
Brewer and others planned to search the property.
"I just want to find my friend," Brewer said, in tears.
'River of mud'
Thomas
Tighe was outside his Montecito home when he heard "a deep rumbling, an
ominous sound I knew was ... boulders moving as the mud was rising," he told CNN affiliate KCAL.
He saw two cars moving sideways down the middle of the street "in a river of mud."
Peter Hartmann said the destruction was everywhere.
"There were gas mains that had popped, where you could hear the hissing," he told the TV station.
"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."
Before the storm hit, Santa Barbara issued mandatory evacuations for 7,000 people,
including in parts of Carpinteria, Montecito and Goleta, which are
below areas scorched by wildfires, county spokeswoman Gina DePinto said.
"While some residents cooperated with the evacuations, many did not. Many chose to stay in place," said Brown, the sheriff.
Sheriff deputies spent Monday conducting door-to-door evacuations for 7,000 people in a mandatory evacuation area. But the area where homes were destroyed, south of Highway 192, was not in a mandatory evacuation zone.
Rescue personnel still have areas to search, Brown said.
"It
was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge
boulders, rocks, (downed) trees, power lines, wrecked cars -- lots of
obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes," Brown
said.
Oprah: Debris is 'everywhere'
Oprah Winfrey posted a video on social media of her trudging through the mud in the yard of her Montecito home.
"There
used to a fence right here,"she said, pointing in the direction of a
neighbor's home. "My neighbor's house, devastated." Winfrey said debris
is "everywhere."
"Thanks everyone for your prayers and concern," Winfrey wrote on the social media post.
She said her home had minor damage, but it pales in comparison to what her her neighbors suffered.
The debris also shut down parts of the oceanside US 101, a major thoroughfare connecting Northern and Southern California.
A
stew of floodwater, mud, tree limbs and other debris covered the
highway in Montecito, making it impassable. Some cars were left on the
highway, mired wheel-deep in the muck.
As workers clear debris to
make areas accessible, more damage is revealed. Along Montecito's Coast
Village Road, the mudslide overturned trees and covered the pavement. At
one spot, a car appeared to be sheared in half -- its front half
pointed skyward, jammed against a pile of muddy wreckage.
The remains of a car are jammed against muddy debris Tuesday in Montecito in Santa Barbara County.
More than 1 inch of rain per hour
The
rain fell at more than 1.5 inches per hour at one point early Tuesday
in parts of Southern California. About a half inch per hour is enough to
start mudslides, said Robbie Monroe of the National Weather Service in
Oxnard.
The downpour fell in areas charred by recent wildfires, which burned vegetation that otherwise could make the terrain more resistant to mudslides.
The Thomas Fire
-- the largest wildfire in California's recorded history -- has burned
more than 281,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since it
began in early December. It was 92% contained, and officials don't
expect full containment until later this month.
Montecito and Carpinteria
are especially vulnerable to mudslides because the steep terrain in some
places goes from thousands of feet above sea level to sea level in "a
matter of just a few miles," said Tom Fayram, a deputy public works
director with Santa Barbara County.
Mudslides are not uncommon to the area and can be deadly. In January 2005, a landslide struck La Conchita in Ventura County, killing 10 people.
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