Mudslides prompt evacuation and search
Firefighters search of missing 73-year-old
Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Posted: 5:18 p.m. EDT (21:18 GMT)
A rescue worker covered in mud takes a break while searching for a man trapped in a mudslide.
Image:
San Francisco (California)
National Weather Service
California
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Manage Alerts | What Is This? SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- More heavy rain fell across parts of already soaked Northern California on Wednesday, triggering mudslides that forced some residents to evacuate and may have buried one man in his backyard.
The National Weather Service posted a flood watch for parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Less than an inch of rain was likely along parts of the coast, but that would be on top of the up to 6 inches that fell in 24 hours Tuesday in the Santa Cruz mountains south of the Bay Area, meteorologists said.
Firefighters in Mill Valley were searching for a 73-year-old man who was reported missing after leaving his house early in the morning to clear debris as a 12-foot wall of mud swept down a steep hillside about 3 a.m.
Three other houses were evacuated in the hilly community about 10 miles north of San Francisco. Three more houses were evacuated because of mudslides in Brisbane, about 10 miles south of San Francisco.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday declared a state of emergency in seven counties as one of the five wettest winters on record ended with record rainfall in March and an unusually wet start to April.
The Sacramento River valley and coastal areas north of San Francisco will have heavy rain and high water over the next several days but no widespread flooding, state and national forecasters said at a briefing Tuesday.
"We're still looking at a copious amount of rainfall," said John Juskie, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento. "This is an evolving situation."
About 80 flood refugees have been staying at a Red Cross shelter set up at a school in Newman, in the Central Valley east of San Francisco.
"As each day goes by, you wonder where you're going to go next," said Kim Klardie, 51, who rescued her three cats but little else when her travel trailer was washed away at a camping resort at Newman.
