Rescuers seek 10 trapped by mudslide

RESCUE crews slogged past fallen trees and boulders in an overnight search for at least 10 people trapped when a mudslide triggered by heavy rains swept over a foothill forest recently scorched by wildfire.

Travelling by foot because a road bridge was washed out, one team climbed up the steep terrain yesterday and another descended it in an effort to reach the Saint Sophia Camp in Waterman Canyon, just north of San Bernardino.

Fourteen other people staying at the Greek Orthodox youth camp had been rescued by late on Thursday, and 10 victims covered in mud were treated at a hospital for minor injuries, authorities said.

“One man was there with his three-year-old child and said he grabbed the child and watched his wife and his other child wash away,” said Kimberly VandenBosch, spokeswoman for St Bernadine Medical Centre in San Bernardino.

Streets and homes flooded in San Bernardino and elsewhere, while power outages and other mudslides were also reported after a storm dumped more than 3½ inches of rain on some of the areas hit hardest by a series of massive Southern California wildfires that started two months ago.

Wildfires make the region’s mountains much more prone to mudslides because they burn off vegetation that normally would help shore up steep terrain. The blazes in October and November were the most severe in state history, burning more than 750,000 acres.

Mudslides derailed an empty freight train in the Cajon Pass and shut down two main tracks between the Los Angeles basin and points east that serve about 100 trains a day, said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern and A&D Santa Fe Railway. There were no reports of any injuries.