Death toll in mudslides reaches 20
Two more bodies have been found over the weekend in Montecito, Calif., raising the death toll from the mudslides to at least 20.
MONTECITO, Calif. — A green, military-style Humvee drove along the shore here, the beach on one side, the shuttered Four Seasons Hotel on the other. Up in the hillsides, a no-go zone for civilians, multimillion-dollar mansions are flooded with mud, and cars, tossed about like playthings, are now just hunks of twisted metal, jammed against trees.
On the facades of the big homes are orange markings. An X denotes the house was checked and cleared by rescuers. A V indicates a victim was pulled, alive, from the wreckage. A V with a slash through it indicates a dead body was found.
Unimaginable tragedy struck this small, exclusive enclave, nestled between the mountains and the ocean and home to many celebrities, last week when a torrential downpour — a “once in 200 years” storm, officials are quick to say — set off deadly mudslides in a landscape that, just last month, was scorched from the state’s largest wildfire on record.
With more than 2,000 rescue workers from across the state combing through the thick mud, two more bodies were discovered over the weekend, bringing the death toll to 20. Four people remained missing on Sunday, and while officials insist their mission is still search and rescue, few are holding out hope for more survivors.
A search team discovered the 19th victim, Morgan Christine Corey, 25, on Saturday. Her 12-year-old sister, Sawyer Corey, was also among those who died. The 20th victim was Pinit Sutthithepa, a 30-year-old father whose 6-year-old son, Peerawat, had already been counted among the dead, and whose 2-yearold daughter, Lydia, is still missing.
Bill Brown, sheriff of Santa Barbara County, said meteorologists were predicting new rains on Thursday, raising fears of more floods and difficult questions about possible evacuations in a wide coastal area of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties that were part of the wildfire zone.