Berkeley Johnson and his wife had just climbed to the roof of their Montecito home after boulders and mud smashed into the building -- a result of the deadly California mudslides -- when the couple heard the muffled, desperate sound of a baby crying.

Johnson and his wife dug through four feet of mud, eventually pulling the baby from the depths of the mudslides, which have already killed 15 and injured 25 as of Wednesday morning.

"We don't know where it came from but we got it out, got the mud out of its mouth," he told KSBY-TV. "I hope it's okay. I'm glad we got it out but who knows what else is out there."

The baby was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but its condition remains unknown at this time.

In another rescue captured on social media, a mud-caked 14-year-old girl was pulled from a collapsed Montecito home where she'd 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.

The death toll from the mudslides in California unleashed by a powerful winter storm is expected to rise Wednesday as rescuers continue to dig through the destruction caused by powerful mud flows that swept away dozens of homes.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MUDSLIDES, FLOODING LEAVE AT LEAST 13 DEAD IN MONTECITO, HIGHWAYS CLOSED

More than a half-inch of rain fell in five minutes on Tuesday, officials said.

"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 at a news conference. He said there are "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."

Most deaths were believed to have occurred in Montecito, an upscale community located just outside Santa Barbara, 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. The region was threatened last month by the state's largest wildfire in modern history, which led to vegetation being burned off. Burned-over zones susceptible to destructive mudslides because scorched earth doesn't absorb water well and the land is easily eroded when there are no shrubs.

"It sounded like a freight training coming down the hill, you could hear these boulders rolling down, the whole house was shaking," Carpinteria resident John Livergood said.

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 percent of people in a mandatory evacuation area of Santa Barbara County heeded the warning, authorities said.

U.S. Highway 101, the link connecting Ventura and Santa Barbara, looked like a muddy river and was expected to be closed for two days.

Montecito and neighboring Carpinteria are beneath the scar left by the Thomas Fire, which erupted Dec. 4 and became the largest ever recorded in California. The blaze spread over more than 440 square miles and destroyed 1,063 homes and other structures.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.</s>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The number of those killed by mudslides in California was expected to rise from at least 13 dead but rescue efforts would become easier on Wednesday after the powerful rain storm heads west and skies clear, authorities said.

Rescue personnel in Santa Barbara County early on Wednesday morning continued searching for victims where mudslides slammed into homes, covered highways and swept away vehicles early on Tuesday when more than a half-inch (1.5 cm) of rain fell in five minutes, a rate that far exceeds the normal flash flood threshold.

“While we hope it will not, we expect this number to increase as we continue to look for people who are missing and unaccounted for,” Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown of the death toll during a news conference on Tuesday.

The upscale communities of Montecito and Carpenteria, just outside the city of Santa Barbara, were hardest hit. Over the past month California’s scenic coastline was ravaged by a series of intense wildfires that burned off vegetation.

On Tuesday, emergency workers using search dogs and helicopters to rescue dozens of people stranded in mud-coated rubble in the normally pristine area, sandwiched between the ocean and the sprawling Los Padres National Forest, about 110 miles (180 km) north of Los Angeles.

A 14-year-old girl was found alive after firefighters using rescue dogs heard cries for help from what was left of her Montecito home, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“I thought I was dead there for a minute,” the teenager Lauren Cantin, covered in mud, said after workers spent six hours rescuing her, NBC News reported.

About 300 people were stranded in a canyon. Local rescue crews, using borrowed helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard, worked to airlift them out, officials said.

Heavy downpours struck before dawn on Tuesday after 7,000 residents in Santa Barbara County were ordered to evacuate and another 23,000 were urged to do so voluntarily, some of them for a second time since December.

The county set up an evacuation shelter at Santa Barbara City College, where some people showed up drenched in mud, and also provided a place for people to take their animals.

But only 10 to 15 percent complied with mandatory orders, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

The number of fatalities surpassed the death toll from a California mudslide on Jan. 10, 2005, when 10 people were killed as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 20 miles south of the latest disaster.

Last month’s wildfires, the largest in California history, left the area vulnerable to mudslides. The fires burned away grass and shrubs that hold the soil in place and also baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

Some local residents had to flee their homes due to the fires last month and again this week because of the rains.</s>Read the latest on the California mudslides with Wednesday’s updates.

CARPINTERIA, Calif. — First came the fires. Now come the floods.

Heavy rains lashed the hillsides of Santa Barbara County on Tuesday, sending one boy hurtling hundreds of yards in a torrent of mud before he was rescued from under a freeway overpass. His father, though, was still missing. A 14-year-old girl was buried under a mountain of mud and debris from a collapsed home before being pulled to safety by rescuers as helicopters circulated overhead, searching for more victims.

Still, those children could count themselves among the lucky.

At least 13 people — and possibly more, the authorities warned — were killed on Tuesday and more than two dozen were injured as a vast area northwest of Los Angeles, recently scorched in the state’s largest wildfire on record, became the scene of another disaster, as a driving rainstorm, the heaviest in nearly a year, triggered floods and mudslides.</s>LOS ANGELES
• The number of those killed by mudslides in California was set to rise from at least 13 dead, but rescue efforts were expected to get easier yesterday after a powerful rain storm headed west and the skies cleared, the authorities said.

Rescue personnel in Santa Barbara County yesterday morning continued searching for victims of the mudslides which had slammed into homes, covered highways and swept away vehicles on Tuesday.

The mudslides were triggered when more than 1.5cm of rain fell in five minutes early on Tuesday, a rate that far exceeds the normal threshold for flash floods.

The death toll of 13 is expected to rise. "While we hope it will not, we expect this number to increase as we continue to look for people who are missing and unaccounted for," Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown said on Tuesday.

The upscale communities of Montecito and Carpinteria, just outside the city of Santa Barbara, were hardest hit. Over the past month, California's scenic coastline had been ravaged by a series of intense wildfires that burned off vegetation.

The mudslides toppled trees, demolished cars and covered blocks of quiet residential neighbourhoods with a thick layer of mud, blocking Highway 101, a major north-south route along the coast.

Emergency workers used search dogs and helicopters to rescue dozens of people stranded in mud-coated rubble in the normally pristine area, sandwiched between the ocean and the sprawling Los Padres National Forest, about 180km north of Los Angeles.

A 14-year-old girl was found alive after firefighters using rescue dogs heard cries for help from what was left of her Montecito home, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"I thought I was dead there for a minute," teenager Lauren Cantin, covered in mud, said after workers spent six hours rescuing her, NBC News reported.

About 300 people were stranded in a canyon. Local rescue crews, using borrowed helicopters from the US Coast Guard, worked to airlift them out, officials said.

Heavy downpours struck before dawn on Tuesday after 7,000 residents in Santa Barbara County were ordered to evacuate and another 23,000 were urged to do so voluntarily, some of them for a second time since last month.

The county set up an evacuation shelter at Santa Barbara City College, where some people showed up drenched in mud, and also provided a place for people to take their animals. But only 10 per cent to 15 per cent complied with mandatory orders, said Ms Amber Anderson, a spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

The number of fatalities surpassed that of a California mudslide on Jan 10, 2005, when 10 people were killed as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 32km from the latest disaster.

Last month's wildfires, the largest in California history, left the area vulnerable to mudslides. The fires burned away grass and shrubs that hold the soil in place and also baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

Some local residents had to flee their homes due to the fires last month, and again this week because of the rain. Among them was Mr Colin Funk, 42, who sat up watching mud and debris approach his Montecito house overnight and fled on Tuesday morning with his wife and three children as thigh-high mud approached the front doorway.

"We started looking around and that is when we saw parts of roofs, and there was a body against our next door neighbour's car," Mr Funk, a financial adviser, said by phone.

"I feel lucky," he added. "Some people lost their lives in my neighbourhood."</s>Know Your Value</s>Jan. 10 (UPI) -- The death toll has risen to 15 and a number of residents remain unaccounted for Wednesday after a powerful storm caused debris flows that wiped away homes and flooding that prompted rescues throughout the Los Angeles area.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff confirmed the number of fatalities and said search-and-rescue efforts were underway in Santa Barbara County to locate people who may be alive and trapped.

Dozens of stranded residents have been rescued by helicopter in areas of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties -- some from their vehicles and others from rooftops.

More than 5 inches of rain have fallen in Ventura County, according to the National Weather Service in Los Angeles, which said rainfall rates were "unprecedented." A rain gauge at the Carpinteria Fire Department recorded a half-inch of rain in just five minutes.

The heavy rains have been dangerous because vegetation is missing -- burned away by the Thomas Fire -- that would normally help channel the water and mud flow. Hardened soil left behind from the wildfire repels water, increases stream levels and brings water to areas it typically wouldn't go.

The Santa Barbara County sheriff said emergency dispatchers received about 600 calls immediately after the rains began early Tuesday. Six homes near Montecito were "wiped away from their foundations" by mudflow and debris, according to a Santa Barbara County fire spokesman.

Television personality Oprah Winfrey, who owns a home in Montecito, awoke Tuesday to a gas-fueled fire in her neighborhood, mud piled deep in her back yard and a neighbor's house destroyed.

The weather forecast on Wednesday shows sunny skies for the next several days, which might help with rescue efforts.</s>SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Weeks after devastating fires tore through Southern California, heavy rains sent mudslides rolling down hillsides in Santa Barbara County on Tuesday, leaving 13 people dead.

The storm uprooted trees and homes, and left mangled cars and abandoned surfboards on the streets.

Roads turned into debris-filled rivers and swallowed up communities downstream from where the Thomas Fire burned thousands of acres last month.

“It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge boulders, rocks, down trees, power lines, wrecked cars — lots of obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.
• Deadly storm: The 13 deaths were reported in Santa Barbara County, authorities said.
• More missing: Officials expect the number to go up as they look for the at least two dozen people who are unaccounted for.
• Hundreds of calls: The storm hit hard around 3 a.m. and until 6 a.m., sheriff’s office dispatchers handled more than 600 phone calls for assistance, Brown said.
• Road closed: The 101 Freeway in parts of Montecito and Santa Barbara, will remain closed for at least 48 hours, authorities said Tuesday.
• More rain: By Tuesday, more than 5.5 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Ventura County over two days, the National Weather Service said. In Carpinteria, nearly 1 inch fell in just 15 minutes, the agency said.

Thomas Tighe told CNN affiliate KCAL he was outside his Montecito home and heard "a deep rumbling, an ominous sound I knew was ... boulders moving as the mud was rising."

He saw two cars moving sideways down the middle of the street "in a river of mud."

Peter Hartmann said the destruction was everywhere.

"There were gas mains that had popped, where you could hear the hissing," he told the affiliate.

"Power lines were down, high-voltage power lines, the large aluminum poles to hold those were snapped in half. Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants."

Before the storm hit, Santa Barbara issued mandatory evacuations, including in parts of Carpinteria, Montecito and Goleta, which are below areas scorched by wildfires, county spokeswoman Gina DePinto said.

"While some residents cooperated with the evacuations, many did not. Many chose to stay in place," Brown said.

"Residents are allowed to shelter-in-place in their homes but will not be allowed to move about the area," the Santa Barbara County tweeted.

"Persons failing to abide by the order are subject to arrest for this misdemeanor violation. The Evacuation Order and Warning areas have not otherwise changed."

'Mud came in an instant'

Ben Hyatt said a river of mud crashed through a neighbor's house in Montecito, a community of about 8,000 east of Santa Barbara,

"Apparently, one of their cars ended (up) in their backyard. We have neighbors at (the) top of the street that evacuated to their roof," Hyatt said.

Hyatt said his Montecito house was "surrounded by mud," and a washing machine had drifted into his front yard.

"Mud came in an instant, like a dam breaking. (It) surrounded the house, 2 to 3 feet," he said.

There were several glimmers of hope, as emergency officials rescued stranded residents.

More than 1 inch of rain per hour

The rain fell at more than 1.5 inches per hour in parts of Southern California. About a half inch per hour is enough to start mudslides, said Robbie Monroe of the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The downpour is overpowering a terrain especially vulnerable in the wake of recent fires.

The Thomas Fire -- the largest wildfire in California's recorded history -- has burned more than 281,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since it began in early December. It was 92% contained, and officials don't expect full containment until later this month.

Montecito and Carpinteria are vulnerable to mudslides because the steep terrain in some places goes from thousands of feet above to sea level to sea level in "a matter of just a few miles," said Tom Fayram, a deputy public works director with Santa Barbara County

"That's definitely at play here. It's just a mess," he said.

Mudslides are not uncommon to the area and can be deadly. In January 2005, a landslide struck La Conchita in Ventura County, killing 10 people.</s>(CNN) -- A day after mudslides crushed several Southern California homes and left at least 15 people dead, rescuers faced a difficult task Wednesday as hundreds of people remain cut off by debris in one neighborhood and others are still missing, officials said.

Heavy rains early Tuesday caused rivers of mud and debris to run down from hillsides in Santa Barbara County, demolishing homes in the seaside community of Montecito just weeks after a massive wildfire scarred the region.

On Wednesday morning, 300 people were trapped in the Romero Canyon area of Montecito because debris was blocking their way out of the neighborhood, Santa Barbara County spokeswoman Yaneris Muniz said.

"We can't get to them, and they can't get to us. ... Once we have daybreak, you will see helicopters start rescuing people there," Muniz said.
• Deadly storm: The 15 deaths were reported in Santa Barbara County, authorities said.
• More missing: Muniz said it's unclear how many people are missing, but searches are ongoing. Earlier, officials said at least two dozen people were unaccounted for.
• Hundreds of calls: As the storm hit hard between 3 and 6 a.m. Tuesday, sheriff's office dispatchers handled more than 600 phone calls for assistance, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said.
• Road closed: US 101 in parts of Montecito and Santa Barbara will remain closed for at least 48 hours, authorities said Tuesday.
• Intense rain: By Tuesday, more than 5.5 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Ventura County over two days, the National Weather Service said. In Carpinteria, nearly 1 inch fell in 15 minutes, the agency said.

Thomas Tighe told CNN affiliate KCAL he was outside his Montecito home and heard "a deep rumbling, an ominous sound I knew was ... boulders moving as the mud was rising."

He saw two cars moving sideways down the middle of the street "in a river of mud."

Peter Hartmann said the destruction was everywhere.

"There were gas mains that had popped, where you could hear the hissing," he told the TV station.

"Power lines were down, high-voltage power lines, the large aluminum poles to hold those were snapped in half. Water was flowing out of water mains and sheared-off fire hydrants."

Before the storm hit, Santa Barbara issued mandatory evacuations for 7,000 people, including in parts of Carpinteria, Montecito and Goleta, which are below areas scorched by wildfires, county spokeswoman Gina DePinto said.

"While some residents cooperated with the evacuations, many did not. Many chose to stay in place," said Brown, the sheriff.

Sheriff deputies spent Monday conducting door-to-door evacuations for 7,000 people in a mandatory evacuation area. But the area where homes were destroyed, south of Highway 192, was not in a mandatory evacuation zone.

Rescue personnel still have areas to search, Brown said.

"It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge boulders, rocks, (downed) trees, power lines, wrecked cars -- lots of obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes," Brown said.

'Mud came in an instant'

Ben Hyatt said a river of mud crashed through a neighbor's house in Montecito, a community of about 8,000 east of Santa Barbara.

"Apparently, one of their cars ended (up) in their backyard. We have neighbors at (the) top of the street that evacuated to their roof," Hyatt said.

Hyatt said his Montecito house was "surrounded by mud," and a washing machine had drifted into his front yard.

"Mud came in an instant, like a dam breaking. (It) surrounded the house, 2 to 3 feet," he said.

More than 1 inch of rain per hour

The rain fell at more than 1.5 inches per hour at one point early Tuesday in parts of Southern California. About a half inch per hour is enough to start mudslides, said Robbie Monroe of the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

The downpour fell in areas charred by recent wildfires, which burned vegetation that otherwise could make the terrain flood-resistant.

The Thomas Fire -- the largest wildfire in California's recorded history -- has burned more than 281,000 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since it began in early December. It was 92% contained, and officials don't expect full containment until later this month.

Montecito and Carpinteria are especially vulnerable to mudslides because the steep terrain in some places goes from thousands of feet above to sea level to sea level in "a matter of just a few miles," said Tom Fayram, a deputy public works director with Santa Barbara County.

"That's definitely at play here. It's just a mess," he said.

Mudslides are not uncommon to the area and can be deadly. In January 2005, a landslide struck La Conchita in Ventura County, killing 10 people.</s>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The number of those killed by mudslides in California was expected to rise from at least 13 dead but rescue efforts would become easier on Wednesday after the powerful rain storm heads west and skies clear, authorities said.

Rescue personnel in Santa Barbara County early on Wednesday morning continued searching for victims where mudslides slammed into homes, covered highways and swept away vehicles early on Tuesday when more than a half-inch (1.5 cm) of rain fell in five minutes, a rate that far exceeds the normal flash flood threshold.

“While we hope it will not, we expect this number to increase as we continue to look for people who are missing and unaccounted for,” Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown of the death toll during a news conference on Tuesday.

The upscale communities of Montecito and Carpenteria, just outside the city of Santa Barbara, were hardest hit. Over the past month California’s scenic coastline was ravaged by a series of intense wildfires that burned off vegetation.

On Tuesday, emergency workers using search dogs and helicopters to rescue dozens of people stranded in mud-coated rubble in the normally pristine area, sandwiched between the ocean and the sprawling Los Padres National Forest, about 110 miles (180 km) north of Los Angeles.

A 14-year-old girl was found alive after firefighters using rescue dogs heard cries for help from what was left of her Montecito home, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“I thought I was dead there for a minute,” the teenager Lauren Cantin, covered in mud, said after workers spent six hours rescuing her, NBC News reported.

About 300 people were stranded in a canyon. Local rescue crews, using borrowed helicopters from the U.S. Coast Guard, worked to airlift them out, officials said.

Heavy downpours struck before dawn on Tuesday after 7,000 residents in Santa Barbara County were ordered to evacuate and another 23,000 were urged to do so voluntarily, some of them for a second time since December.

The county set up an evacuation shelter at Santa Barbara City College, where some people showed up drenched in mud, and also provided a place for people to take their animals.

But only 10 to 15 percent complied with mandatory orders, said Amber Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

The number of fatalities surpassed the death toll from a California mudslide on Jan. 10, 2005, when 10 people were killed as a hillside gave way in the town of La Conchita, less than 20 miles south of the latest disaster.

Last month’s wildfires, the largest in California history, left the area vulnerable to mudslides. The fires burned away grass and shrubs that hold the soil in place and also baked a waxy layer into the earth that prevents water from sinking deeply into the ground.

Some local residents had to flee their homes due to the fires last month and again this week because of the rains.</s>LOS ANGELES—At least five people were killed and a dozen injured in mudslides triggered by heavy rains in Southern California over night and early Tuesday morning, local officials said.

In Montecito, an upscale community in Santa Barbara, at least five homes were swept away in debris flows that struck in the middle of the night, said Mike Eliason, spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
At least 15 people are killed by mudslides following heavy overnight rains in areas of Santa Barbara County, California, where last month's wildfires destroyed forests and destabilized the land.