LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Nearly a week of record-setting rainfall has given way to clear skies and typically mild Southern California temperatures, though it is likely to be weeks before the region digs out from a series of brutal storms that killed at least 28 people.
Five back-to-back days of torrential rains finally ended Tuesday, but not before triggering a deadly mudslide in the coastal hamlet of La Conchita. The storms also triggered fatal traffic accidents all across the state, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands, imperiled hillside homes and caused flash floods.
The devastation was most stunning at La Conchita, a small community of houses sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the hills south of Santa Barbara. At least 10 were killed and 10 injured when a rain-saturated hillside came crashing down on more than a dozen homes Monday afternoon.
Rescuers found the bodies of three children and an adult woman in the pile of mud and rubble before dawn Wednesday - the wife and children of La Conchita resident who had dug alongside the crews since the slide. Crews using cameras, trained dogs and microphones continued to dig around the clock to find about a dozen others listed as missing.
``We have not given up hope on any of the people,'' said Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger surveyed the devastation Wednesday morning. After a tour by helicopter, he walked into the disaster zone, where he met with groups of weary rescuers and residents.
He said he came to see the magnitude of the damage. thank rescue workers and give his condolences to residents who lost family and friends.
``I am going to help them so they can come back here,'' he said of the evacuated residents. ``We will do everything that we can to make it a safe area.''
National Weather Service forecaster Stuart Seto said clear skies were expected to remain through at least the weekend following days of almost continuous rainfall. High temperatures in many areas were expected to be back into the 70s by the end of the week.
The rain had turned Southern California, usually mild this time of year, into a giant flood zone.
The 28 victims included an unidentified man found wedged in a tree in Topanga Canyon; an 18-year-old woman whose car hit a fallen tree in San Diego; a 35-year-old woman swept away by raging waters in San Bernardino County; and a 79-year-old Los Angeles woman run over by her husband, who couldn't see her in the downpour.
Still others included a 2-year-old girl who slipped from her mother's arms as rescuers were plucking them from the roof of a car floating down a wash in Palmdale and a homeless man crushed by a mudslide near Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium.
Power to more than 800,000 homes and businesses across the state had been knocked out by the storms.
Despite the clearing skies, authorities warned that flooding was still possible throughout the region as runoff spilled from dams and rain-swollen creeks.
In the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, Cesar and Diane Trinidad were ordered to evacuate after their home was hit by a mudslide and a mansion on a hill above it was left teetering precariously.
``We really don't know what to do,'' Diane Trinidad said. ``We're not even allowed in without permission.''
Related:
- Rescuers Find Four More Bodies After California Mudslide
- Rain Hampers California Mudslide Rescue
- Southern California Mudslide Death Toll Reaches 19
- Rescuers Search for Mudslide Survivors in California
- California Rescuers Save 6-Month-Old Baby From Rushing Water
- Southern California Rescuers Search for Landslide Victims
- Mudslide Causes Widespread Destruction In California Town
