10 missing in Calif mudslide

[chadtm80]

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Rescue crews slogged past fallen trees and boulders in an overnight search for at least ten people trapped when a mudslide (search) triggered by heavy rains swept over a foothill forest recently scorched by wildfire.



Traveling by foot because a road bridge was washed out, one team climbed up the steep terrain Friday and another descended it in an effort to reach the Saint Sophia Camp in Waterman Canyon, just north of San Bernardino (search).

Fourteen other people staying at the Greek Orthodox youth camp had been rescued by late Thursday, and ten victims covered in mud were treated at a hospital for minor injuries, authorities said.

"One man was there with his 3-year-old child and said he grabbed the child and watched his wife and his other child wash away," said Kimberly VandenBosch, spokeswoman for St. Bernadine Medical Center in San Bernardino.

Streets and homes flooded in San Bernardino and elsewhere, while power outages and other mudslides were also reported after a storm dumped more than 3 inches of rain on some of the areas hit hardest by a series of massive Southern California wildfires (search) that started two months ago.

Wildfires make the region's mountains much more prone to mudslides because they burn off vegetation that normally would help shore up steep terrain. The blazes in October and November were the most severe in state history, burning more than 750,000 acres.

Much of Waterman Canyon was scorched in the weeklong Old Fire, which burned more than 91,000 acres, destroyed 993 homes, and killed four people.

On Thursday, authorities evacuated residents who live in the canyon and closed off the road leading there. A surging stream of water rushed through the canyon, which looked like a sea of gray mud.

Temperatures had dropped into the 40s, and county Fire Marshall Peter Brierty said rescuers faced "incredibly mushy, muddy, slippery" conditions.

He said some debris flows contained logs and branches and were more than six feet high.

"Even a foot or two feet of this will knock you down," Brierty said.

One man was buried waist-deep in mud and debris and trapped underneath a log, county fire Capt. Rick McClintock said. Rescue crews were able to cut the log free and carried the man across a creek, he said.

No one answered the phone at the Saint Sophia Camp on Thursday. Messages left with camp officials were not immediately returned. The camp hosts summer religious retreats for children and other events year-round, according to its Web site.

It wasn't immediately known whether the people at the camp were affiliated with the Greek Orthodox parishes that run the facility or were holiday visitors.

Elsewhere in the county, a mudslide damaged and toppled trailers at a campground in Devore. Sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said 30 to 50 people suffered minor injuries, some requiring hospital treatment. Several people were unaccounted for, but authorities said they were not believed to be in danger.

Emergency crews spent much of Christmas Day setting sand bags outside homes and along waterways to contain flood water and diverting traffic from washed out roads.

In Lytle Creek Canyon, the rain caused several mudslides, including a 4-foot-high flow across a road that trapped a car. The driver was not hurt, and the road was closed.

Sections of Lytle Creek overflowed, flooding roads, and prompting emergency officials to order an undetermined number of residents along the creek and streams to evacuate.

The Pacific storm began moving into Southern California on Wednesday evening, bringing Los Angeles its first rainy Christmas Day in two decades. Forecasters were not optimistic it would relent anytime soon.

"It'll probably get worse before it gets better," National Weather Service forecaster Stan Wasowski said Thursday.

Mudslides derailed an empty freight train in the Cajon Pass and shut down two main tracks between the Los Angeles basin and points east that serve about 100 trains a day, said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern and A&D Santa Fe Railway. There were no reports of any injuries.

Fire crews in an unincorporated area north of Upland were placing sand bags to protect structures, and minor flooding was reported on some roads in Crestline.

Meanwhile, strong wind gusts downed power lines and caused a disruption in service to various areas of Los Angeles, authorities said. Hundreds of people were without power early Friday in San Bernardino and Los Angeles.

In downtown Los Angeles, storm winds blew eight stories of scaffolding down onto parked cars, damaging the vehicles but not the nearby under-construction building. There were no injuries.

Forecasters issued a winter weather advisory through early Friday to warn of winds gusting up to 55 mph.

[Lindaloo]

Heard about this on the news this morning. Those poor people had no warning this was going to happen, it just happened. They are hoping that these people made it out and are at nearby cabins or burned out cars from the recent fires. I am praying for that.

[Stephanie]

This time of the year is always bad for them out there because it's the rainy season. With the fires they just had, they were worried that something like this would happen.

I hope they all got out as well1