2017 COSTLIEST YEAR IN U.S. FOR DISASTERS
15 killed as muck sweeps away houses spared by wildfire; winfrey’s home survives storm
Last year was the most expensive in US history for natural disasters, with a barrage of fires, freezes, floods and hurricanes that cost $306 billion, according to a US government report. The year far outpaced the previous record, set in 2005 with losses of $215 billion largely due to hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita.
Astorm that slammed a California coastal community is over. The search for its victims is not. Authorities in Santa Barbara County were still trying to reach new areas and dig into the destruction to find dead, injured or trapped people after a powerful mud flow swept away dozens of homes.
At least 15 people were confirmed dead on Tuesday, at least 25 were injured and at least 50 had to be rescued by helicopters.
Those numbers could increase when the search is deepened and expanded on Wednesday, with a major search-and-rescue team arriving from nearby Los Angeles County and help from the Coast Guard and National Guard along with law enforcement. They’ll focus first on finding survivors.
“Right now our assets are focused on determining if anyone is still alive in any of those structures that have been damaged,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.
The sheriff said “at least several dozen homes that have been either destroyed or severely damaged, and likely many other ones are in areas that are as-yet inaccessible.” He said it’s likely they’ll find more people amid that destruction.
The search for the missing — whose numbers are uncertain — will continue through the night and then intensify after daylight on Wednesday, authorities said.
Most deaths were believed to have occurred in Montecito, said Santa Barbara County spokesman David Villalobos.
The wealthy enclave of about 9,000 people northwest of Los Angeles is home to such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe and Ellen DeGeneres,
Winfrey’s home survived the storm and slides. In an Instagram post she shared photos of the deep mud in her backyard and video of rescue helicopters hovering over her house.
“What a day!” Winfrey said. “Praying for our community again in Santa Barbara.”
A mud-caked 14-year-old girl was among the dozens rescued on the ground on Tuesday. She was pulled from a collapsed Montecito home where she had been trapped for hours.
“I thought I was dead for a minute there,” the dazed girl could be heard saying on video posted by KNBC-TV before she was taken away on a stretcher. Twenty people were hospitalised and four were described as “severely critical” by Dr Brett Wilson of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
The mud was unleashed in the dead of night by flash flooding in the steep, fire-scarred Santa Ynez Mountains. Burned-over zones are especially susceptible to destructive mudslides because scorched earth doesn’t absorb water well and the land is easily eroded when there are no shrubs.
The torrent arrived suddenly and with a sound some likened to a freight train as water carrying rocks and trees washed away cars and trashed homes.
Authorities had been bracing for the possibility of catastrophic flooding because of heavy rain in the forecast for the first time in 10 months. Evacuations were ordered beneath recently burned areas of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. But only an estimated 10 to 15 per cent of people in a mandatory evacuation area of Santa Barbara County heeded the warning, authorities said. —
I came around the house and heard a deep rumbling, an ominous sound that I knew was the boulders moving as the mud was rising Thomas Tighe, Montecito resident
Right now our assets are focused on determining if anyone is still alive in any of those structures that have been damaged Bill Brown, Santa Barbara Sheriff
What a day! Praying for our community again in Santa Barbara Oprah Winfrey, TV show host
Firefighters successfully rescued a 14-yr-old girl after she was trapped for hours inside a destroyed home in Montecito Santa Barbara Fire Department
All hell broke loose... Power lines were down. Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants Peter Hartmann, a dentist