A woman has been found dead under a pile of mud, rocks and other debris after flash floods unleashed mudslides that swept through her town in the southern California mountains.
Authorities had been searching for the missing woman for days after thunderstorms and heavy rain triggered mudslides that washed away cars, buried homes and affected 3,000 residents in two remote communities in the San Bernardino Mountains.
First responders searched for Doris Jagiello, 62, amid the devastation in Forest Falls, a former summer getaway for cabin owners that has become a bedroom community. A large debris flow, full of mud and “extremely large boulders”, hurtled downhill and crashed into Jagiello’s home, causing significant damage “and carrying away everything in its path”.
Jagiello’s body was found on Thursday, buried under several feet (meters) of mud. Her remains were located about 20 to 30 feet (six to nine meters) from her home, in a debris-strewn area with rocks and boulders ranging from the size of basketballs to the size of small cars, sheriff’s lt Jeff Allison said.
“While this was not the desired outcome, the Sheriff’s department hopes finding Jagiello will bring some measure of closure to Jagiello’s family and aid in their healing process,” the San Bernardino county sheriff’s department said in a statement on Friday.
One of her dogs was found alive inside her house but two others remain missing, Allison said.
The mudslides hit a region east of Los Angeles that was scorched by a wildfire two years ago, and their severity served as a powerful warning to residents about the destruction that can be wreaked months or even years after fires have been put out and the smoke clears. Extreme fires can create what are known as “burn scars”, which have little vegetation to hold the soil and are susceptible to land and mudslides.
On Monday, nearly 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain fell atop nearby Yucaipa Ridge.
Mudslides had been a concern in areas of the San Bernardino Mountains that were burned by the deadly El Dorado fire, which was sparked two years ago when a couple used a smoke device to reveal their baby’s gender. The couple was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a firefighter.
In January 2018, mudslides thundered down a steep mountainside that had burned a month earlier. The slides killed more than 20 people in the tiny beachside town of Montecito near Santa Barbara. The worst of the rain fell in a 15-minute span with Montecito getting a little more than a half-inch (1.25 centimeters) in five minutes.