Officials are scrambling to clear debris from the Southern California mudslides that swallowed dozens of homes and forced the closure of major Highway 101 along the picturesque Santa Barbara County coast.
The death toll from the mudslides rose to 20 on Sunday, with four other people still reported missing. Officials warn that the risks for further mudslides may be greater if the areas are not cleared as soon as possible.
Director of the Santa Barbara County Emergency Management Office, Rob Lewin, said in a statement Saturday that clearing the debris and blocked drainage channels are of main concern.
Inmate work crews remove trees and debris following last Tuesday’s rain storm on East Valley Road in Montecito, California on January 13, 2018
Emergency services work continuously to clear up the mess and restore services to the community from the mudslides which so far have claimed 20 lives
In this photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, demolition workers break down boulders that are scattered throughout Montecito
Work crews pump out watery, sticky mud from the 101 Freeway. Authorities have no idea when the six-lane U.S. Highway 101 will reopen but acknowledge it could be weeks if the damage is as bad as feared
Watery and sticky mud leftover from the deadly floods is shown covering the closed 101 Freeway in Montecito
‘We have got to get those basins cleared as fast as we can. If we don’t get those debris basins cleared out, then we’re not going to be prepared for the next storm, and we don’t know what that storm is going to look like,’ Lewin said.
‘We have got to get those channels ready or we’re going to have more mud and flow under a storm that would be of less intensity.’
Emergency personnel said chances of finding more survivors in the ravaged landscape of hardened muck, boulders and other debris had waned considerably since heavy rains unleashed torrents of mud down hillsides before dawn last Tuesday.
Still, the 20 fatalities confirmed in and around the affluent community of Montecito, 85 miles (137 km) northwest of Los Angeles in the coastal slopes adjacent to Santa Barbara, ranks as the greatest loss of life from a California mudslide in at least 13 years.
Pictured: A car is left destroyed against a tree on Olive Mill Road in Montecito, where heavy mudslides came through the area
Firemen watch heavy equipment sift through debris along Olive Mill Road Sunday morning where deadly mudslides closed the area
Marie Lipscomb of the California Consevaton Corps clears a room of mud in the Glen Oaks are of Monticito, where mudslides came through the area
Firemen call it a night in the devastated neighborhood on East Valley Road following last Tuesday’s rain storm in Montecito
Large boulders line Picay Creek in the devastated neighborhood on East Valley Road following last Tuesday’s rain storm
The official death toll early on Saturday had stood at 19, with seven people listed as missing. Four remained unaccounted for on Sunday, including the 2-year-old daughter of the latest victim whose remains have been positively identified.
Ten people perished in January 2005 when a hillside saturated by weeks of torrential rains collapsed in the seaside hamlet of La Conchita, just 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Montecito, burying more than a dozen homes in seconds.
Unlike the La Conchita tragedy, the stage was set for Montecito’s slides by a massive wildfire last month — the largest on record in California — that stripped hillsides bare of any vegetation to hold soils in place following a day of drenching showers.
Another 900 emergency personnel arrived this weekend to join the relief effort conducted by more than 2,100 personnel from local, state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy and the American Red Cross.
A home marked for removal sits abandoned in the devastated neighborhood on East Valley Road following the storm
A broken down home marked for removal sits abandoned in the devastated neighborhood on East Valley Road
A bulldozer removes mud from the bridge crossing Picay Creek in the devastated neighborhood on East Valley Road
The force of water and mud pushed this van into fallen trees in the devastated neighborhood on East Valley Road
Caltrans workers are pictured above making measurements and working on a bridge over Picay Creek
But authorities said on Sunday that the search-and-rescue mission had shifted into a ‘search-and-recovery’ effort, reflecting the diminished likelihood of finding anyone else alive.
The destruction covered 30 square miles (78 square km), leaving 65 single-family homes demolished and more than 450 others damaged. Nearly 30 commercial properties were damaged or destroyed, officials said.
The slides also forced a 10-mile (16-km) stretch of one of California’s most celebrated coastal roads, the heavily traveled Highway 101, to be closed indefinitely.
Emergency services tackle to destruction caused by the mudslides. Crews fought to remove mud, debris and break down huge boulders
Several houses were completely obliterated in the slide and others suffered extensive damage from the deadly storms
So far 18 lives have been claimed by the disaster and rescue efforts continue for at least seven missing people
Crews fought to remove mud, debris and break down huge boulders which had hit the town on Tuesday
Emergency services tackle to destruction caused by the mudslides. Dogs were bought in to aid the search for bodies
The shutdown has posed a major traffic disruption, forcing motorists to drive 100 miles out of their way on back roads to commute around the closure, said Jim Shivers, a spokesman for the state transportation department.
He said parts of Highway 101 were under 6 to 7 feet (1.8 to 2.1 meters) of water and mud. Cleanup crews were working around the clock in 12-hour shifts.
Seeking to ease the detour for commuters, ferry boats were making commuter runs twice a day between Santa Barbara and the town of Ventura to the south. A community group formed in the aftermath of last month’s devastating Thomas Fire also began coordinating free airplane and helicopter rides for doctors and emergency personnel.
As a precaution against the possibility of further slides, officials have ordered residents in most of the southeastern corner of Montecito to leave their homes for what was likely to be one or two weeks.
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