Seven dead in Calif. mudslides; 9 missing ( 2003-12-27 14:53) (Agencies)
Searchers slogging through
waist-high muck found seven people dead Friday and looked for at least nine
others missing after mudslides engulfed two camps in the San Bernardino
Mountains in a terrifying torrent of soil, boulders and tree trunks.
The mudslides were set off on Christmas Day after a downpour fell on
hillsides that had been stripped of vegetation by wildfires in October and
November. With nothing to hold the soil in place, trees and rocks went roaring
down the hillsides, along with the dark-brown mud.
"I thought I was going to die," said Brian Delaney, 19, who was trapped up to
his neck before rescuers pulled him out of the mud that crashed into the
recreation center at a trailer-home encampment in Devore.
The bodies of a man and a woman were found near the trailer camp, San
Bernardino County authorities said. They were identified as Carroll Eugene Nuss,
57, and Janice Arlene Stout-Bradley, 60. Residents said Stout-Bradley was the
campground manager.
No one else was missing in Devore, said sheriff's Deputy Kris Phillips.
Thirty-two trailers were destroyed.
Five bodies were found below a Greek Orthodox retreat, the Saint Sophia Camp.
Twenty-seven people were believed to have been spending Christmas Day with the
camp's caretaker when the wall of mud swept away two buildings on one side of
the camp. Fourteen of the people were rescued on Christmas Day.
Finding people caught in the mudslides was time-consuming because victims
could have been washed far down the canyon, county sheriff's spokesman Chip
Patterson said.
"The area is so big. There was so much water, so much force. We're talking
about a massive flash flood that has gone miles even," Patterson said.
Patterson cautioned that it was not certain that the bodies recovered in
Waterman Canyon were from the camp. The coroner's office was trying to identify
the bodies Friday night.
Most structures at Saint Sophia Camp, built on a plateau at the upper end of
the canyon, were unscathed. A bench was left sticking out of the muck
downstream, and a swing set lay on its side.
"These folks had no warning," said county fire spokeswoman Tracey Martinez.
"It just happened. According to the survivors we've spoken to they didn't even
know it was coming until it was there."
Temperatures fell rapidly at dusk and the National Weather Service (news -
web sites) issued a frost advisory for the region. Patterson said the search in
Waterman Canyon would go on through the night.
"We have no reason to think we can't find survivors and I hope we will,"
Patterson said. "We're not even close to giving up."
In the Devore area, on the east side of the Cajon Pass running between the
San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges, rainfall totaled 4.39 inches,
according to the National Weather Service. On the San Gabriel side of the pass,
8.57 inches of rain fell.
On Friday, with the roads and bridges washed out, sheriff's deputies and
firefighters had to hike over the rough terrain and climb over or around rocks
and fallen trees to resume the search at the camp in Waterman Canyon, about 60
miles east of Los Angeles. The mud was 12 to 15 feet deep in places.
Searchers tried to find victims by poking the mud with long poles.
"It's sort of like going through an avalanche," Patterson said. "It's pretty
tedious, but that's how we're doing it."
County Fire Marshal Peter Brierty said rescuers faced "incredibly mushy,
muddy, slippery" conditions, with some slipping into the mud up to their hips.
"Even a foot or 2 feet of this will knock you down," he said.
The caretaker of the church camp, George Monzon, was among the missing, said
the Rev. John Bakas, who helps lead the retreat.
The leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in seven Western states, Metropolitan
Anthony of San Francisco, called for prayers and expressed hope for "positive
results" from the search. "As for those lives that we know are lost, we pray for
their souls and for comfort for their families," he said in a statement.
Also among the missing there were a 7-year-old girl and her mother, the
girl's aunt said. The missing woman's husband, Gilberto Juarez, saved their
3-year-old daughter, Stephanie, and they were among those taken to a hospital on
Christmas. But he could not reach his wife, Rosa, 40, and daughter Katrine.
"He said he helped the little girl up and when he turned they were gone, the
water had risen too much and had swept the cabin away," said Juarez's
sister-in-law, Mildred Najara. "They became separated when the water rushed in."
The trailer campground had a number of permanent residents. One of them,
Delaney, said about 30 people had gathered in the recreation center because they
were nervous about the heavy rain. After the power went out, rocks and other
debris came crashing through the door.
Mud soon filled the center and Delaney and others broke the windows to
escape.
"I tried to pull two ladies out," he said. "There were kids sitting on the
pool table, and the pool table was almost up to the ceiling on the mud."
Once outside, Delaney got stuck in mud up to his neck and had to shed his
clothing so rescuers could pull him out.
"I'm lucky to be alive," he said.
Nearly 750,000 acres were burned bare by the wildfires last fall. Much of the
scorched land was on the steep slopes of the San Bernardinos.
