13 dead in southern California

“We have no idea where they’re at”, Santa Barbara County spokeswoman Amber Anderson said of the missing people on Wednesday. Six homes near Montecito were “wiped away from their foundations” by mudflow and debris, according to a Santa Barbara County fire spokesman.

Crews performed at least 50 rescues to save people trapped in vehicles and buildings.

The number of missing remains in flux, with authorities saying Friday it was five people, down from an estimate of 43 the day before.

The founder of St. Augustine Academy, Roy Rohter, was one of those killed in Ventura County, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Among the damaged properties were historic hotels and the homes of celebrities including television personality Oprah Winfrey and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres in Montecito.

Winfrey’s home survived the mudslides. Trapped for hours, she was finally rescued by firefighters.

After the Thomas Fire – the largest wildfire in California’s recorded history – ravaged the landscape in December, the southern part of the state was hit by a massive storm.

“A major issue will be the burn scar areas, which will be susceptible to flash floods, mudslides, and debris flows”, the National Weather Service warned.

The torrent arrived suddenly and with a thunderous sound.

Berkeley Johnson said he and wife Karen climbed through a window to their roof around 3 a.m. after mud and rocks came crashing into their home and dumped eight feet of mud on their staircase.

Among those winched to safety was a 14-year-old girl, who was rescued from a collapsed house in Montecito.

“Seemed like just heavy rain”, he said.

Another 28 injuries have been reported in Santa Barbara County following the deluge that overwhelmed an area scorched by wildfires last month.

Mud fills the interior of a auto destroyed in a rain-driven mudslide in a neighborhood under mandatory evacuation in Burbank, California, January 9, 2018. (Kenneth Song/Santa Barbara News-Press via Reuters) A search dog looks for victims in damaged homes after a mudslide in Montecito, Calif. on Jan 9.

The worst of the rainfall occurred in Montecito in a 15-minute span before dawn Tuesday.

“All hell broke loose”, said Peter Hartmann, a dentist who moonlights as a news photographer for the local website Noozhawk. From the devastating Mexico City quake, to the monster hurricanes which ripped through most of the tropics, Mother Nature posed a more serious threat than modern warfare ever could. “Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants”.

Hartmann watched rescuers revive a toddler pulled unresponsive from the muck. “I should have just told her to leave”.