Police hope for ‘miracle’ to find missing in mudslide

Californianauthorities called for public help in locating seven people stillmissing after mudslides that killed at least 18, as crews carried onyesterday searching for survivors.The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’sOffice made a plea for information on any of the missing residents,while acknowledging that finding anyone alive would be a “miracle”.“Themissing persons were reported by family and friends, and resided inareas that were heavily damaged during the storm and subsequentmudslides,” the sheriff’s office said. The sheriff’s office listed thenames of the missing, who range in age from two to 62, in a statement onFriday night.The disaster struck last Tuesday after heavy rainssoaked the area near Montecito, north of Los Angeles, where vegetationhad been denuded by the largest wildfire in California’s history.Soddenhillsides gave way, unleashing a torrent of mud, water, uprooted treesand boulders onto the valley below and causing what the police describedas “traumatic injuries” to the victims, who ranged in age from 3 to 89.Thedestruction covered 75 square km and more than 2,100 personnel fromlocal, state and federal agencies, including the US Coast Guard, the USNavy and the American Red Cross are involved in “challenging” search,recovery and relief efforts, the California Department of Forestry andFire Protection said.Officials ordered residents in most of thesoutheastern corner of Montecito, which is east of Santa Barbara, toleave their homes for what was likely to be one or two weeks.One ofCalifornia’s most celebrated roads, coastal Highway 101, was partiallyclosed, with mud was two feet deep in places, while in Montecito, mudreached the roof lines of houses, as residents surveyed their damagedhomes. “We have a yard to redo and hopefully our insurance will help outwith that, but the people across from me, newer homes, gone,” GarrettSpeirs, a 54-year-old artist who has been living in Montecito for 20years, said. “Everybody down below gone, two girls gone...Twosixth-graders in the school our kids went to,” Speirs added.