Hundreds of searchers continued the grueling work today of hunting for survivors and digging up bodies in the sea of mud and wreckage left by flash flooding in this wealthy coastal enclave.

Authorities in California's Santa Barbara County are still trying to reach new areas and dig into the destruction to find dead, injured or trapped people after a powerful mud flow swept away dozens of homes.

Rob Lowe told today how he fled with his family as a wildfire he said was “like Armageddon” destroyed more than 100 homes in a wealthy, celebrity-studded California enclave.

A person opened fire at a postal sorting office in California last night, killing three people and critically wounding a fourth, authorities said.