LOS ANGELES--At least eight people died and thousands fled from their homes in Southern California on Tuesday as a powerful rainstorm triggered flash floods and mudslides on slopes where a series of intense wildfires burned off protective vegetation last month.
Heavy downpours struck before dawn on Tuesday after thousands of residents along the Pacific coast north of Los Angeles were ordered to evacuate. But only 10 to 15 percent complied with mandatory orders, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara Fire Department.
Emergency workers, using search dogs and helicopters, have rescued dozens of people stranded in rubble, Anderson said. At least 25 people were injured. Photos posted by the fire department showed a teenager covered in black mud being led away from the rubble of a house that had been destroyed by the Montecito mudslide. The girl had been trapped in the home for hours before rescuers came to her aid, the department said on Twitter.
Other pictures posted online showed piles of debris coated with deep, brown mud in residential areas. The death toll marked the largest single-day loss of life during a California mudslide since Jan. 10, 2005, when 10 people died as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 20 miles (32 km) south of the latest disaster.
The rains subsided on Tuesday, but forecasters warned of more rain throughout the day. Rainfall totals ranged from 2 inches to 4-1/2 inches (5 to 11 cm) in the area, the National Weather Service said.
The loss of life and damage in the area were devastating, particularly after the fires that forced people out of their homes only a month ago, said Dominic Shiach, a restaurateur who lives in Montecito with his family just outside the latest evacuation zone.
"It’s like a sucker punch," Shiach, who evacuated due to the fires but not the rains, told Reuters by phone. "Where are the frogs and locusts? We’re waiting for them."
