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CNN Live At Daybreak
Sliding Earth
Aired December 26, 2003 - 05:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: First there were raging fires, now sliding earth. In Santa Barbara County, California, rescue workers are trying to reach a church camp cut off by mudslides. The mud is 12 feet deep in at least one area. Well, the heavy rains swept across land cleared by cleared by wildfires last October and November.
Reporter Jane Yamamoto of CNN affiliate KTTV has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE YAMAMOTO, KTTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A man buried in mud, pulled out on a stretcher, lucky to be alive. Another survivor, this 13-year-old with a few marks on his back is put in an ambulance after getting stuck in this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey! Hey!
YAMAMOTO: Mud and debris racing through Waterman Canyon, overflowing, up to 12 feet deep.
PETER BRIERTY, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY FIRE MARSHAL: Conditions are absolutely horrible, getting worse.
YAMAMOTO: Conditions so bad, the mud slide washed out Old Waterman Canyon above and below Camp St. Sophia, where it crosses Highway 18. It was ground zero of the old fire two months ago.
BRIERTY: Because of the fact that there's no vegetarian on these hillsides because of the fire, we're stuck.
YAMAMOTO: All the water hit at once, knocking over two houses and trapping people, possibly a church group at Camp St. Sophia.
BRIERTY: There were people in there for the weekend, for the holidays. And that's what we need to get in there, and find out how many more people are there and make the rescues that we need to do.
YAMAMOTO: But doing that means bringing in swift water rescue crews and heavy equipment to build a makeshift road.
BRIERTY: It's too dangerous for us to move into that area where the road's been cut. There's absolutely no way we can get equipment in there. The water is too high. It is too full of logs and fire debris. We have people standing by waiting to get in to try to do the work. It is too dangerous at this point.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: Those heavy rains also caused flooding in Las Vegas. Six people had to be rescued from a car after water flooded the Imperial Palace parking garage. Earlier in the day, the same rescue squad pulled a woman from her car as it sat in flooded waters outside the casino.
Let's check in with Rob Marciano -- and, Rob, it would be nice if the weather would cooperate for those searchers out there in southern California.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they'll be drying out a little as we go through this morning, Fred.
Those pictures obviously dramatic, and that's one of the things they were worried about a couple of months back when they had those fires and all that, all that vegetarian was burned away, you know, would they get heavy rain on top of that. And that's what happened yesterday.
And you don't need much in southern California, especially in the mountains. I mean they -- one to two inches is all they really had in some of the main observation sites, maybe up to three or four in some of the mountains. A lot of other mountain communities can handle that type of moisture, but certainly not something that has been swept by wildfires.
All right, here's the latest radar imagery, the moisture now pushing to the east. Las Vegas will probably still see a couple of leftover showers today. But for the most part, Los Angeles down at San Diego, we are looking at drying conditions as this storm system heads into the Rocky Mountains and also the mountains of Utah, the Wasatchs there.
What we do expect today are heavy snows. There are heavy snow warnings out for places like Park City and Steamboat in Vail.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 26, 2003 - 05:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: First there were raging fires, now sliding earth. In Santa Barbara County, California, rescue workers are trying to reach a church camp cut off by mudslides. The mud is 12 feet deep in at least one area. Well, the heavy rains swept across land cleared by cleared by wildfires last October and November.
Reporter Jane Yamamoto of CNN affiliate KTTV has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANE YAMAMOTO, KTTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A man buried in mud, pulled out on a stretcher, lucky to be alive. Another survivor, this 13-year-old with a few marks on his back is put in an ambulance after getting stuck in this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey! Hey!
YAMAMOTO: Mud and debris racing through Waterman Canyon, overflowing, up to 12 feet deep.
PETER BRIERTY, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY FIRE MARSHAL: Conditions are absolutely horrible, getting worse.
YAMAMOTO: Conditions so bad, the mud slide washed out Old Waterman Canyon above and below Camp St. Sophia, where it crosses Highway 18. It was ground zero of the old fire two months ago.
BRIERTY: Because of the fact that there's no vegetarian on these hillsides because of the fire, we're stuck.
YAMAMOTO: All the water hit at once, knocking over two houses and trapping people, possibly a church group at Camp St. Sophia.
BRIERTY: There were people in there for the weekend, for the holidays. And that's what we need to get in there, and find out how many more people are there and make the rescues that we need to do.
YAMAMOTO: But doing that means bringing in swift water rescue crews and heavy equipment to build a makeshift road.
BRIERTY: It's too dangerous for us to move into that area where the road's been cut. There's absolutely no way we can get equipment in there. The water is too high. It is too full of logs and fire debris. We have people standing by waiting to get in to try to do the work. It is too dangerous at this point.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: Those heavy rains also caused flooding in Las Vegas. Six people had to be rescued from a car after water flooded the Imperial Palace parking garage. Earlier in the day, the same rescue squad pulled a woman from her car as it sat in flooded waters outside the casino.
Let's check in with Rob Marciano -- and, Rob, it would be nice if the weather would cooperate for those searchers out there in southern California.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they'll be drying out a little as we go through this morning, Fred.
Those pictures obviously dramatic, and that's one of the things they were worried about a couple of months back when they had those fires and all that, all that vegetarian was burned away, you know, would they get heavy rain on top of that. And that's what happened yesterday.
And you don't need much in southern California, especially in the mountains. I mean they -- one to two inches is all they really had in some of the main observation sites, maybe up to three or four in some of the mountains. A lot of other mountain communities can handle that type of moisture, but certainly not something that has been swept by wildfires.
All right, here's the latest radar imagery, the moisture now pushing to the east. Las Vegas will probably still see a couple of leftover showers today. But for the most part, Los Angeles down at San Diego, we are looking at drying conditions as this storm system heads into the Rocky Mountains and also the mountains of Utah, the Wasatchs there.
What we do expect today are heavy snows. There are heavy snow warnings out for places like Park City and Steamboat in Vail.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
