January 12, 2005
By Steve Gorman and Jill Serjeant
Netscape News
LA CONCHITA, Calif. (Reuters) - Officials warned residents of a California hamlet on Wednesday that the steep hills overlooking their community could collapse again as the death toll from a mudslide rose to 10 with six still missing.
Rescue workers continued to search for survivors trapped in the 30-foot-deep mound of earth that swallowed some 15 homes in La Conchita, about 80 miles north of Los Angeles.
Part of a hillside that towered over the seaside enclave collapsed on Monday after weeks of drenching rain unleashed torrents of mud that buried a four-block area within seconds.
At a hastily called town meeting at a Red Cross evacuation center, officials warned residents that more slides were likely and that the mud and debris were still moving and unstable.
"We consider that the whole area of La Conchita is unsafe," Ventura County Deputy Fire Chief Dave Festerling said. "We want people out of the area."
As the names of the 10 confirmed dead were read out, residents and sheriff's deputies wept.
But when the names another 10 presumed buried were read out, four of them stood up in the room to announce that they had survived, prompting a round of applause from the 150 or so gathered from the tightly knit town.
Earlier, Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper had cautioned that the number of missing remained uncertain because members of the bohemian beachfront community came and went without much notice. "Nobody signed a guest book," Roper said.
Meanwhile, emergency teams used picks, shovels, axes, fiber-optic cameras, sensitive audio equipment, dogs and even their bare hands as they dug down looking for crevices large enough to shelter potential survivors.
SEARCHERS STILL HOPEFUL
Fire officials say they would continue until at least Wednesday evening before deciding whether the search-and-rescue mission would become a recovery effort for bodies.
Overnight, search teams found the bodies of a woman in her mid-30s and her three daughters, aged 2 to 11, officials said.
Oxnard Battalion Fire Chief Tom Waller said rescuers were racing against time as the mound of mud quickly hardened into the consistency of concrete.
"It's a very dense clay soil, so it doesn't move very easily with shovels, which is what we have to use," he said.
Waller said crews still held out hope that more would be found alive because similar disasters showed that people trapped in air pockets could survive for four or five days.
As the rescue operation continued, controversy brewed over whether the town would be allowed to remain in the slide-prone area. A retaining wall built after a 1995 mudslide that covered part of the town was swept away by Monday's mudslide.
Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn said authorities planned to "discuss several policy issues" involving the town's future.
Asked whether he thought it was reasonable to keep it open to residents, Flynn said: "We've got to have geologists look at this situation. I'm a layman but they are going to talk to us about it."
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who visited the area on Wednesday morning, threw his support behind rebuilding efforts once the search and rescue operations were completed.
"In the past few days, we have seen the power of nature to cause damage and despair, but we will match that power with our own resolve," he told reporters.
Jack Falk, 48, a longtime La Conchita resident, said the community, located on a slip of land between steep cliffs and the Pacific Ocean, deserved to be saved.
"The amount of energy that's being spent here right now recovering dead bodies could be put into securing this town for the people who are alive here to prevent this from happening again." he said.
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