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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.