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U.S. NEWSWednesday 10 January 2018

6 dead in Southern California as rain triggers mudslides

By CHRIS WEBER and Los Angeles counties.
But only an estimated 10
DANIEL DREIFUSS to 15 percent of people
in a mandatory evacua-
Associated Press tion area of Santa Barbara
County heeded the warn-
MONTECITO, Calif. (AP) — ing, authorities said. Mar-
shall Miller, who evacuated
At least eight people were his home in Montecito on
Monday with his family, re-
killed and homes were turned to check for dam-
age and found his neigh-
torn from their foundations borhood devastated. He
never reached his home
Tuesday as downpours sent because two of his neigh-
bors, an elderly woman
mud and boulders roar- and her adult daughter,
needed a lift to the hospi-
ing down hills stripped of tal after being rescued by
firefighters. The pair had left
vegetation by a gigantic their house before it was
inundated with 6 feet of
wildfire that raged in South- mud, but they got trapped
outside in the deep muck.
ern California last month. “It was sobering,” Miller
said. “I saw them covered
Rescue crews used heli- in mud and shaking from
the cold.”
copters to pluck people A stretch of U.S. Highway
101 that connects Ventura
from rooftops because County to Santa Barbara
County looked like a mud-
debris blocked roads, and dy river clogged with trees
and other debris. A kayak
firefighters pulled a mud- was marooned in the flot-
sam, and a Range Rover
caked 14-year-old girl from was buried up to its bum-
pers. Some of the worst
a collapsed Montecito damage was on Monte-
cito’s Hot Springs Road,
home where she had been where the unidentified girl
was rescued. Large boul-
trapped for hours. ders were washed out of
a previously dry creek bed
“I thought I was dead for A member of the Long Beach Search and Rescue team looks for survivors in a car in Montecito, and scattered across the
a minute there,” the girl Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018. Several homes were swept away before dawn Tuesday when mud road. q
could be heard saying on and debris roared into neighborhoods in Montecito from hillsides stripped of vegetation during a
video posted by KNBC- recent wildfire.
TV before she was taken
(Daniel Dreifuss)

away on a stretcher. man David Villalobos. The eroded when there are no bling, an ominous sound I

All eight deaths were be- mud was unleashed in shrubs. The torrent of mud knew was ... boulders mov-

lieved to have occurred the dead of night by flash early Tuesday swept away ing as the mud was rising,”

in Montecito, a wealthy flooding in the steep, fire- cars and destroyed sev- said Thomas Tighe, who

enclave of about 9,000 scarred Santa Ynez Moun- eral homes, reducing them discovered two of his cars

people northwest of Los tains. Burned-over zones to piles of lumber. Photos missing from the driveway.

Angeles that is home to are especially susceptible posted on social media “I saw two other vehicles

such celebrities as Oprah to destructive mudslides showed waist-deep mud in moving slowly sideways

Winfrey, Rob Lowe and El- because scorched earth living rooms. down the middle of the

len DeGeneres, said Santa doesn’t absorb water Some residents were un- street in a river of mud.”

Barbara County spokes- well and the land is easily accounted for in neigh- Authorities had been brac-

borhoods hard to reach ing for the possibility of

because of downed trees catastrophic flooding be-

and power lines, Santa Bar- cause of heavy rain in the

Paradise in the Caribbean bara County Fire Depart- forecast for the first time
ment spokesman Dave Za- in 10 months. Evacuations

niboni said. were ordered beneath

“I came around the house recently burned areas of

and heard a deep rum- Santa Barbara, Ventura

Police union files suit over body cam footage

SALES OFFICE +297 2801005 info@leventaruba.com By COLLEEN LONG The Patrolmen’s Benevo- not only the clear prohibi-
MOBILE +297 5927275 www.leventaruba.com Associated Press lent Association, which tions, but also the very se-
NEW YORK (AP) — A union represents about 24,000 rious safety, privacy, due
representing New York City uniformed officers, said the process, and other inter-
police officers sued the de- public release of footage, ests” of everyone seen in
partment Tuesday, saying which began last summer such videos, said the law-
its release of body camera on a limited basis, also suit, filed in a state court in
footage without a court or- violates the privacy of ev- Manhattan.
der violates a state law that eryday citizens caught on The city’s law department
makes officer disciplinary camera. said it is reviewing the com-
records confidential. “This conduct disregards plaint. q