Oprah’s agony as killer mud engulfs homes in VIP canyon
Sixteen people are dead, 24 are missing and at least 300 are trapped by devastating mudslides which oozed their way through a wealthy neighbourhood in California.
Just weeks after raging wildfires forced them to leave their homes, residents of the area to the east of Santa Barbara were being urged to leave after a deluge of mud, ash and boulders.
Oprah Winfrey’s $50million (£37million) home was damaged but survived the onslaught. tennis star Jimmy Connors revealed that he had to be airlifted from his property.
the death toll climbed as emergency workers pulled bodies from the river of kneedeep debris which descended on the community of Montecito and the surrounding Romero Canyon area after a torrent of rain earlier in the week.
Boulders as big as cars were seen rolling down the hillsides during the deluge. Homes and historic hotels were battered or swept away altogether. Hillside vegetation which would have ordinarily impeded the mud had been stripped away during the wildfires last month.
Hundreds of residents remain trapped and authorities are working on an evacuation plan. Many of them had ignored earlier orders to get out. emergency services attributed this to ‘evacuation fatigue’ after last month’s fires.
Bridget Bottoms, a resident who chose to stay, appeared to confirm their fears, declaring: ‘it sounds foolish but… how bad can it get?’ About 7,000 residents in Santa Barbara County were ordered to evacuate before the downpour on tuesday, and another 23,000 were urged to do so voluntarily.
Only days after her glamorous appearance at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey shared a video of her home to let her followers know she was safe and her property had survived. She stood in mud as she said she was ‘devastated’ by the damage to her neighbour’s house. ‘thanks everyone for your prayers and concern,’ she wrote.
‘My property is fine. Some mud, and minor damage that pales in comparison to what my neighbours are going through.’ Connors told his twitter followers: ‘Montecito – fires burn – rain comes – mudslides and devastation – evacuated today by helicopter – thoughts and prayers for all !!!’
As many as 24 people remain unaccounted for, said Chris elms, a spokesman for state firefighters. He added: ‘We are still very much in active search and rescue mode.’
A girl of 14 was freed after firefighters heard cries for help from what was left of her home. ‘i thought i was dead there for a minute,’ Lauren Cantin said after workers spent six hours digging her out. One rescue worker told how he pulled a ‘muddy doll’ from the debris, to find that it was a toddler. the girl aged two was taken to hospital with a hip injury.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said of the devastation: ‘it looked like a World War One battlefield. it was a carpet of mud and debris.’