At least 15 people are dead in California’s Santa Barbara County following devastating mudslides in the area stripped by recent wildfires. More than 300 people remain stuck in their homes, and officials warn that the death toll will likely rise as emergency workers make it into damaged areas. “It was literally a carpet of mud and debris everywhere, with huge boulders, rocks, down trees, power lines, wrecked cars—lots of obstacles and challenges for rescue personnel to get to homes,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. One man, Thomas Tighe, told a local news station that he witnessed two cars traveling sideways in the street through a “river of mud.” Another said the mud came “in an instant, like a dam breaking.”
