SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (Reuters) - At least ten and as many as 20 people were still missing here on Friday morning after waves of mud up to 12 feet high overran a camp in a local canyon, fire officials said as rain and cold weather hampered search efforts.
Officials of the San Bernardino county fire department were forced to call off their search in Old Waterman canyon shortly after 1 a.m. PST (4 a.m. EST) because of inclement weather and conditions made worse by wild fires here two months ago that scorched the canyon in foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains and stripped away all ground cover.
As day broke, specially trained mountain search and rescue teams joined by helicopters, search dogs and teams with hiking gear headed back up to the canyon to recommence the search.
The area is about 65 miles east of Los Angeles.
Fourteen adults and children were rescued on Thursday afternoon from the mudslide area and were treated at local hospitals. One man remained hospitalized.
Fire officials said two buildings were partially destroyed by the waves of mud caused by an unprecedented Christmas Day rain storm that dumped well over two inches of rain on the greater Los Angeles area. Those rescued indicated the missing may have been trapped in one of those buildings.
"That's where some of them may be buried," said Tracey Martinez, a fire department spokeswoman.
Martinez said it was not clear who the people staying at the camp were because they were not affiliated with the Greek Orthodox church that runs the facility, a children's camp named St. Sophia Camp.
A local Hispanic man in his early 30s who declined to give his name said as he waited at the local sheriff's and fire command post that members of his church had been at the camp Thursday and he believed they were among the trapped people.
He declined to give the name of the church.
After Thursday's torrential rainstorm, the first Christmas storm to strike Southern California in 20 years, no further rain was predicted for Friday although rescuers were concerned about temperatures in the low 30s and the continued instability of the canyon area because of the mud and the debris.
The wildfires of October and November, the worst in California history, burned off trees and shrubbery that would normally retain water and prevent severe mudslides.
The fires scorched more than 91,000 acres, killing four people and engulfing 993 homes throughout the region.
Local television showed scenes of rushing water 12 feet deep or more late on Thursday as roads were washed out and rescuers were forced to try to build a temporary bridge to try to bring in heavy equipment to aid the search.
"Conditions are horrible and getting worse," San Bernardino County Fire Marshal Peter Brierty told reporters on Thursday. "It's too dangerous for us to move into that area where the road's been cut."
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_rain26.e73d.html Torrent swamps camp; many trapped, missing
Twelve-foot wall of debris sweeps through canyon
01:27 AM PST on Friday, December 26, 2003
By GEORGE WATSON and DOUGLAS E. BEEMAN / The Press-Enterprise
Up to 18 adults and children at a church camp were trapped or missing Thursday after mudslides triggered by drenching rains swept through Waterman Canyon, authorities said. Rescue workers were frustrated by washed-out roads.
A dozen other campers managed to escape, authorities said.
No deaths were reported, but at least a couple of people rescued from the canyon were taken to area hospitals for treatment of hypothermia, San Bernardino County fire officials said.
William Wilson Lewis III / The Press-Enterprise
San Bernardino Fire Capt. Vince Gates works his way toward an unidentified man trapped under mud, boulders, tree trunks and other debris as a mudslide swept through a campground in Waterman Canyon. Rescuers were able to free the man.
A dangerous mix of mud and water swept sticks, logs and boulders the size of 55-gallon drums down the fire-denuded hillsides, washing out portions of Old Waterman Canyon Road. The canyon was among the first areas burned in October by the Old Fire, which destroyed about 1,000 homes in San Bernardino and the adjacent mountain communities.
Rescuers encountered 12-foot-deep debris flows coming down the canyon, said San Bernardino County Fire Marshal Peter Brierty. Lower Waterman Canyon Bridge was washed out.
"The situation is horrible," Brierty said. Rescue crews were scouting the canyon Thursday evening seeking a way past washed-out roads, but the sodden ground and mud flows made rescue efforts dangerous, he said. "It's almost physically impossible."
Pulled from debris
Mud and debris trapped a father and his 13-year-old son along part of Old Waterman Canyon Road.
Firefighters and road crews used a skip loader to ferry 13-year-old Ramon Mesa, shivering, muddy and wet, across a creek choked with rain and debris. Firefighters then hiked up a muddy slope to Mesa's father, who was trapped between rocks and a fallen tree in waist-deep mud and screaming in Spanish for his 4-year-old daughter.
Amid the sound of boulders crashing down the hillside, fire crews cut away a 4-foot length of tree and tugged the man out of the mud.
The man's daughter apparently was swept downstream. It was unclear Thursday evening whether she had been found.
A dozen people escaped from the cabin at St. Sophia Camp, but fire crews Thursday night were still trying to reach as many as 18 others who were believed to be trapped at the camp or unaccounted for, said San Bernardino County Assistant Fire Chief Dan Wurl. Mud and debris demolished two camp buildings, Wurl said.
Father Demetrius-Earl Cantos, chancellor for the Greek Orthodox metropolis of San Francisco, which covers all of California, said the church’s camp in the San Bernardino Mountains did not have any campers Thursday. He said the camp was not rented out.
Dangerous rescue
Just before 2 p.m., someone made a call for help from the camp, San Bernardino County authorities said. Sheriff's deputies arrived near the scene soon after and tried to help. No deputies were trapped, officials said.
As of 7 p.m., a San Bernardino County Search And Rescue Team began working its way up from the bottom of Lower Waterman Canyon as another team of California Department of Forestry rescuers headed down from the north end, said Cindy Beavers, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.
Rescuers worked with a sense of urgency, but they found it difficult to pull people from the mud. Beavers said the canyon remains treacherous.
"As the rain continues to fall, the mud continues to slide," she said.
Any rescuers entering the disaster zone had to be carrying personal floatation devices, Brierty said.
Authorities were interviewing victims at hospitals to try to learn more about who still remained at the camp, Beavers said. The campers apparently speak Spanish, and authorities were having difficulty getting translators, Wurl said.
The rescuers were slogging through deep mud, oftentimes encountering large boulders underneath the sludge. "As they work their way in, they basically sink in the mud," she said.
Some of the victims were taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center and St. Bernardine Medical Center suffering hypothermia.
Beavers said the group staying at the camp all knew each other, and may have been family.
Rescuers "will work through the night," she said. At first light new teams will be brought in to join the effort. If the weather conditions allow it, air support will also be employed.
At 8:30 p.m. temperatures were dropping, as the rain seemed to be subsiding. But Beavers said the area remained extremely dangerous.
"There's nothing up here to stop the mud from sliding down." She said the rain came hard and fast, causing the flash flood.
Houses hit
Carla Hanson and her family were having a Christmas meal with friends off the mountain when mudslides smashed through her house. The slide tore her barbecue out of the ground and exposed the natural gas line.
"My entire ground floor is gone. All my kids' Christmas presents are gone," said Hanson, 38. She has two children, ages 13 and 11. Hers is one of eight homes in the lower canyon area.
Hanson's mother and sister live across the creek from her. Her sister and a neighbor rescued Hanson's dogs. Thursday evening, Hanson's mother and sister were stuck in their home. "They still have a turkey in the oven," she said.
Hanson said her mother described a scene in which seven or eight people were walking up and down the street aimlessly, as if they were confused about what to do or how to get out.
After learning of the slides, Hanson tried to return to her home. She encountered an eight-foot wall of mud and rocks. One man she met on her trek up the canyon told her he barely outran a wall of mud.
"My husband's up there with (the ambulance company) AMR, trying to use bulldozers to get folks out," she said.
The family's home survived October's disastrous fire that destroyed many structures along Old Waterman Canyon Road. But she couldn't escape this latest disaster.
"We were the very first structures threatened in the fire, and we made it through. This is ridiculous," she said.
Staff photographer William Wilson Lewis III and staff writer Jerry Soifer contributed to this report.
The mud slides are in Old Waterman Canyon north of San Berdu, Big Bear is several miles to the east and wouldn't be affected by this mud slide. However, this could be only the first of many slides to come if the rains keep up. Why anyone would be camping in the SB National forest after all the fires is beyond me.