Mudslide-stricken community prays as death toll rises to 20

MONTECITO >> Parishioners prayed on Sunday for those killed and for families still searching for missing relatives in a Southern California community ravaged by mudslides, and authorities announced another body had been found, increasing the death toll to 20.

The body of 30-year-old Pinit Sutthithepa was discovered Saturday afternoon. His 2-year-old daughter, Lydia, remained missing. His 6-year-old son, Peerawat, nicknamed Pasta, and his 79-year-old father-in-law, Richard Loring Taylor, also were killed in the mudslides.

The list of those still missing in the mudslides has shrunk to four.

Because most churches in Montecito are in an evacuation area, many worshippers attended services in nearby towns. At a church in Santa Barbara, they carried flowers, lit candles and prayed for the families who have lost loved ones. The victims were their friends and neighbors, they said.

“Our whole community is devastated,” Hannah Miller said at the Trinity Episcopal Church. “There isn’t anyone who doesn’t know someone who has been affected by this disaster.”

In the disaster area, firefighters went door to door to check the structural stability of the houses damaged by a powerful rainstorm that preceded the mudslides and scoured what’s left of toppled homes and mangled cars as they searched for the missing.

The storm sent flash floods cascading through mountain slopes that were burned bare by a huge wildfire in December.