Rescuers look for a missing person in a mudslide on Tuesday as tractors went through the thick sludge after flash floods swept rocks and trees down slopes, washed cars away and buried buildings in small communities in Southern California.
The forecast shows more thunderstorms and mudslides possibilities, orders for evacuation remained in action in areas of the San Bernardino Mountains while a wildfire raging 500 miles forced residents to evacuate and abandon their homes.
Crews searched in the East of Los Angeles for people who might be stuck and trapped by mudflows that caused massive destruction. Homes and buildings were damaged, with a commercial building buried so deep that its roof collapsed, as described by Eric Sherwin, spokesperson in the fire department.
The rains were remnants of a storm that caused high winds and rainfall in some drought-stricken areas in Southern California last week, helping firefighters that had been burning about 32 kilometres south of the mudslides.
The mud flows and flooding occurred in parts of the San Bernardino Mountains where there is little vegetation to hold the soil – from the wildfires in 2020.
