Death Toll Of CA Mudslides Climbs With 43 Missing

MONTECITO, CA — Seventeen people are dead, 43 others remain missing and still more are trapped by a sea of mud and debris in Montecito, where scorched hillsides gave way during Tuesday’s intense rainstorm. Nearly 72 hours later, the search for survivors has become critical with air crews looking for victims from the sky while firefighters on the ground contend with downed power lines and roads buried by tons of mud.

Late Thursday, after mining social media and evacuation centers, officials adjusted the number of missing from eight to 43, illustrating how daunting the task is to find survivors as overnight temperatures hovered in the 40s.

Though unidentified, some of the dead are known to be children. Authorities estimate that nearly 100 homes were destroyed in the mudslides and several hundred more were damaged. Entire businesses were washed downhill, and the 101 Freeway remains lost to the sea of debris. Already devastated by the November Thomas Fire, the largest in state history, the upscale hillside enclave is once again enduring catastrophe.

Mandatory evacuations were ordered for Montecito and nearby community Carpinteria but only a "fraction" of the residents actually left their homes. Many simply didn’t have time to escape before the wall of mud washed down the canyon. Roughly 22,000 people live in both communities, according to the latest census figures.

As the depth of Tuesday’s losses begins to sink in, rescue crews aren’t the only ones trying to help. Armed with shovels residents are wading through the mud, looking for the survivors and attempting to dig out from under the devastation.

The Los Angeles Times interviewed a man named Mikey as he shoved mud away from the intersection of Hot Springs and Sycamore Canyon roads. With tears in his eyes, he was looking for his girlfriend’s missing sisters, Morgan and Sawyer Corey.

“They are good people,” he told the newspaper. “I’m hoping to find them.”

Many of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities live in Montecito. Ellen DeGeneres evacuated but Oprah Winfrey said she didn’t even know about the evacuations until she stepped outside and saw the mud.

"There are families missing, there are people who are missing family members," DeGeneres said on her show. "They’re finding people and bodies and I mean, you hear the word mudslide and you have no idea the impact that it has... (Montecito) is beyond recognizable."

Oprah spoke to DeGeneres’ audience via FaceTime, describing the shock of the devastation.
"Everyone was saying to me, 'How's your property?'" she said. "I'm looking out the front window, I think ‘everything's fine, everything's fine,’ and it wasn't until I put my boots on and went outside walking and I realized everything wasn't indeed fine."

Social media has been flooded with posts from people looking for neighbors and lost loved ones.

My brother sent me this photo from #Montecito, CA. He tells me underneath all THAT is a hwy. He was forced to close his restaurant & like so many out there is devastated by the loss of life. #mudslides pic.twitter.com/wQMFXPI2sA
— Kara Sewell (@KaraSewellTV) January 9, 2018

Patch staffers Hoa Quách and Emily Holland contributed to this report. This aerial photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department shows mudflow and damage to homes in Montecito, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Anxious family members awaited word on loved ones Wednesday as rescue crews searched grimy debris and ruins for more than a dozen people missing after mudslides in Southern California on Tuesday destroyed over a 100 houses, swept cars to the beach and left more than a dozen victims dead. (Matt Udkow/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)