Hopes dwindle for mudslide victims

MONTECITO, Calif. — More than two full days after mudslides ravaged this coastal town, the search for the missing became an increasingly desperate exercise Thursday, with growing doubts about whether anyone would be found alive. Seventeen people were confirmed dead and eight others were unaccounted for.

“They’re not going to find survivors anymore. They’re going to find bodies in the mud,” said David Weinert, who feared two of his neighbours were among the dead and turned out to be right in at least one case. “I think they’re gone.”

“At this moment we are still looking for live victims,” said Santa Barbara fire Capt. Gary Pitney. But he confessed: “The likelihood is increasing that we’ll be finding bodies, not survivors.You have to start accepting the reality of that.”

He noted that one survivor pulled from the muck earlier in the week was suffering from hypothermia after just an hour.