A distraught mudslide survivor has told how he pulled a baby from under four feet of debris.
Berkeley Johnson and wife Karen fled on to their roof in the early hours of the morning as mud, rocks and debris destroyed their home in Montecito, California.
Once the flood had subsided, the couple climbed down and heard the cry of a baby coming from a neighbor’s property.
Mr Johnson fought back tears as he described digging down four feet through mud before finding the tiny child among some debris. They scooped mud out of the baby’s mouth before the unnamed child was taken to hospital for treatment.
Berkeley Johnson (left) and wife Karen (right) fled on to their roof in the early hours of the morning as mud, rocks and debris destroyed their home in Montecito, California
A car is piled up in debris after a mudslide trapped it after heavy rains in Montecito, California
An aerial view of Montecito, California, shows homes and roads completely washed away by mudslides that hit the area on Tuesday
Mr Johnson told KSBY: ‘We don’t know where it came from but we got it out, got the mud out of its mouth. I’m hoping it’s okay, they took it right to the hospital.
‘It was just a baby four feet down in the mud in nowhere – under the rocks. I’m glad we got it out but who knows what else is out there.’
The condition of the baby is not yet known.
The couple themselves had a narrow escape after hearing the rumbling of rocks and mud approaching.
They ran into their house moments before mud crashed through the house, ending up 8ft up their staircase. They escaped through a window on to the roof.
Santa Barbara County Firefighters work amid flood waters and debris flow during heavy rains in Montecito, California, on Tuesday
‘I heard the rumbling of the rocks and I looked up and the river and the trees were coming down like chum, chum, chum. We ran into the house and right then the boulders busted through our house.
‘The house was just wiped out – it took everything out.’
Authorities in Santa Barbara County were still trying to reach new areas and dig into the destruction to find dead, injured or trapped people after a powerful mud flow swept away dozens of homes.
At least 13 people were confirmed dead Tuesday, at least 25 were injured and at least 50 had to be rescued by helicopters.
Those numbers could increase when the search is deepened and expanded Wednesday, with a major search-and-rescue team arriving from nearby Los Angeles County and help from the Coast Guard and National Guard along with law enforcement. They’ll focus first on finding survivors.
Heavy rains overnight combined with large areas burned by the Thomas Fire combined for flash flooding and mudslide risk. Pictured above, a debris cluttered street in Montecito
A car remains stuck in the mud as a cleanup crew work to clear mud beside a closed off section of US Hwy 101, flooded after mud and debris broke through an embankment along the freeway near the San Ysidro exit in Montecito
The search for the missing – whose numbers are uncertain – will continue through the night and then intensify after daylight Wednesday, authorities said.
Most deaths were believed to have occurred in Montecito, said Santa Barbara County spokesman David Villalobos.
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. In an Instagram post she shared photos of the deep mud in her backyard and video of rescue helicopters hovering over her house.
‘What a day!’ Winfrey said. ‘Praying for our community again in Santa Barbara.’
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.
At least 25 people were injured in the mudslides and others were unaccounted for as of Tuesday. Pictured above, emergency personnel rescued a young woman from a collapsed house in Montecito
Firefighters rescue a 14-year-old girl who was trapped for hours inside a destroyed home in Montecito on Tuesday. Rescue crews worked for six hours using the jaws of life and other tools to free her from the mangled wreckage, but she walked away
‘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.
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.
The first confirmed death was Roy Rohter, a former real estate broker who founded St. Augustine Academy in Ventura. The Catholic school’s headmaster, Michael Van Hecke, announced the death and said Rohter’s wife was injured by the mudslide.
Montecito is beneath the scar left by a wildfire that erupted Dec. 4 and became the largest ever recorded in California. It spread over more than 440 square miles (1,140 square kilometers) and destroyed 1,063 homes and other structures. It continues to smolder deep in the wilderness.