Metropolis Reality Forums - California Mudslides

Sponsored by: The Fans!

Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register.
Nov 25^th, 2024, 6:11pm

Upcoming Premiere Dates:
Survivor 23, Season premiere
Thursday, September 14 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on CBS

Metropolis Reality Forums Ť California Mudslides ť

   Metropolis Reality Forums
   Off-Topic Forums
   In the News (Moderators: lakelady, yesteach, MediaScribe, Bumper, Isle_be_back)
   California Mudslides

Previous topic | New Topic | Next topic »

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic

Author

Topic: California Mudslides (Read 124 times)

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

California Mudslides
« on: Jan 12^th, 2005, 12:49pm »

Quote

Modify

Four more bodies pulled from mudslide
Death toll 10; as many as 13 still missing in California disaster
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Posted: 1:08 PM EST (1808 GMT)

LA CONCHITA, California (CNN) -- Rescue crews early Wednesday pulled the bodies of a mother and her three daughters from debris in La Conchita, California, making the death toll from Monday's mudslide to 10, officials said.

Mechelle Wallet, 37, and daughters Hannah, 10, Raven, 6, and Paloma, 2, were home when the mudslide hit, The Associated Press reported.

The father, Jimmie Wallet, had gone out to get ice cream at the time, an official with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department said.

After the bodies were found, friends took him out of town with his 16-year-old daughter, according to AP.

"I'm very pleased with the hard work and all the effort in finding my family," Wallet said in a statement, AP reported.

Jimmie Wallet had been among the most visible of the town's residents since the mudslide as he searched with firefighters for his family members, AP reported.

As many as 13 people were still missing after the slide, which brought down tons of mud, sand and debris and covered or moved more than a dozen homes in the town north of Los Angeles.

Ventura County sheriff's deputies are expected to distribute a list of the missing to try to eliminate people who weren't in the area at the time of the disaster.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was planning to tour the area Wednesday, both on the ground and by air, officials said.

More than 600 rescue personnel from about 20 different agencies are searching for survivors, concentrating on a 30-foot mound of mud that buried 15 homes.

Some rescue workers are still hopeful they may find other victims alive in the mud.

"The rescue teams are going in, they're finding voids still in the rubble pile that we believe are large enough that somebody could be in. As long as we're seeing that, then we hold out hope," Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper told CNN's "American Morning."

Monday night, firefighter Mark Pina helped pull a woman alive from the rubble of her home, where she was found in such a space.

"When we got to her, it was about two foot by two foot by two foot -- it was a little box," Pina told CNN. "And she was just in that little void space."

Cadaver dogs and dogs trained to find survivors were aiding in the search. Most of the rescuers were using their hands to dig through the mud. Rescuers were also using listening devices to try to detect any signs of life beneath the rubble, although no sounds of life have been heard since 6 a.m. Tuesday (9 a.m. ET).

At the end of the day Wednesday, officials will meet and decide whether Thursday's operations should become recovery operations, instead of rescue.

Ten people have been pulled out alive, eight of whom were transported to hospitals. Two of those were in critical condition, Roper said.

Roper sought to end rumors that authorities knew in advance that the mudslide was going to occur Monday afternoon. He said sensors on the mountainside detected nothing before the bluff came crashing down onto the town.

"If we did, we would have ordered the evacuations," he said.

Roper said media reports that the town was being evacuated at the time of the mudslide were wrong. He said authorities were evacuating stranded motorists on a nearby highway where flooding was occurring, an incident that had nothing to do with the mudslide.

Resident Dena Hayess said she had been taking pictures of smaller mudslides earlier Monday on a freeway near the town and had just gotten back to her house when the major mudslide hit.

"I was sitting on my porch on the phone, when I felt the ground shaking, and I peeked around the corner and saw a house sliding by," she told CNN.

In 1995, La Conchita was hit by another large mudslide that caused heavy damage. Afterward, a barrier wall was built to help protect the town, but the wall appeared to have been no match for Monday's mudslide.

CNN's Rusty Dornin, Ted Rowlands and Kimberly Osias contributed to this report.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------

Copyright 2005 CNN.

IP Logged

Rhune
ForumsNet Administrator

Gender:

Posts: 292

Re: California Mudslides
« Reply #1 on: Jan 12^th, 2005, 12:50pm »

Quote

Modify

Sending out my sympathies to these families and hope that none of our friends here were hurt in this deadly mudslide.

IP Logged

rcs_mum
ForumsNet Member

Proud Mom!

Gender:

Posts: 1744

Re: California Mudslides
« Reply #2 on: Jan 12^th, 2005, 9:28pm »

Quote

Modify

My son Bobby lives in Malibu, and said that all of the roads up to the houses in the hills are blocked by mudslides and rocks. He lives on a steep hill and has a 5ft wide stream running down his property where there was none before.
Before I left on Jan 5th there were already many mudslides and flooding in the LA area!

IP Logged

Pages: 1

Add Poll

Notify of replies

Send Topic


Previous topic \| New Topic \| Next topic »