Hundreds of Rescuers Look for Survivors and Victims after the Muddy Landslides in California

Hundreds of rescuers and volunteers continue the tedious search for survivors and bodies in the sea of ​​mud and ruins left by the muddy landslides that flooded the rich coastal area of ​​Montesseto not far from Los Angeles in the western American state of California, the Associated Press reported.

With mud-spattered faces, the saviors who came from all over the state move through the mud to their knees, mingling with long rods, looking for victims. Trained dogs crawl the heaps of ruins left from collapsed homes along the path of the element. By Wednesday night, the number of bodies had reached 17. More are still considered missing. Twelve people are in Cotta Hospital in Santa Barbara, and four of them are in critical condition, Dr Brett Wilson, quoted by the AP. The number of rescued people, trapped in their homes for more than a day has grown. About 9,000 people live in the Montessito villa area northwest of Los Angeles where homes have celebrities like TV star Oprah Winfrey. Today, however, the luxury mansions nestled in the beautiful forests of the coastal hills are destroyed.

Everything is overflowing with a sea of ​​mud, where floods of buildings, towering cars, tree trunks float. Santa Barbara's sheriff, Bill Brown, compared the mournful sight of a battlefield from the First World War. Until this morning, 500 rescuers have already traveled around 75 percent of the suffering area, officials said. The people of Montessito were considered lucky that the spectacular fires in the area last month spared their city. But it turned out that it was these fires, which destroyed the forests of the surrounding hills, have discovered the expanse of the muddy element that came on Tuesday because it has not encountered any barriers along the way.