The death toll from two southern California mudslides has risen to 11 as authorities search for five more victims and a looming storm threatens more flash flooding.
Yesterday, searchers aided by found the bodies of a man and a woman near a church camp in the San Bernardino Mountains where five children and two adults died when the camp was engulfed by a rain-driven slide of rocks, mud and debris on Christmas Day.
The dead and missing were among 28 people who had gathered at the caretaker's cabin at St. Sophia Camp, about 65 miles east of Los Angeles, for a Christmas luncheon.
Authorities believe they became trapped when the cabin was overrun by a wall of mud and debris. Two women and two children escaped the tide of mud and alerted a sheriff's deputy who was patrolling a nearby mountain road.
Searchers planned to work until nightfall in hopes of finding the missing before a massive storm forming in the Pacific Ocean reaches the mountains on Tuesday.
The storm was expected to bring up to six inches of rain, sub-freezing temperatures and strong winds to the San Bernardino Mountains, which were charred two months ago by deadly wildfires that were among the worst in state history.
The rains could spur more flash flooding on the denuded slopes, the National Weather Service said.
A police spokesman said sheriff's deputies had gone door-to-door in the landslide area to "make sure everybody is out because of the possibility of rain."
The bodies of a man and a woman were recovered on Friday at a campground several miles away. They had been killed in a separate slide that destroyed 32 trailers. Authorities said some of the bodies may never be recovered.