Winter Storm Leo Hampering Search for Missing California Woman; Mudslides, Avalanche, Flooding Prompt Rescues

Eric Chaney and Ada Carr
Published: January 23,2017
Rainy weather is hampering the search for a missing 18-year-old woman, whose car plunged into a rushing creek southeast of San Franciso on Saturday.
“You can’t put a diver in the water when you have logs and tree branches and debris coming down rapidly. It’s just too dangerous,” Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ray Kelly told SFGate. “You couldn’t pick a worse time to have to do a recovery than right now, with all of the conditions going on.”

A man is pulled to safety by San Bernardino County Fire personnel after he and a companion's vehicle became trapped in fast moving waters in Swarthout Canyon.
(Courtesy of VVNG.com)

In San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles, firefighters were able to pull off a dramatic swift-water rescue of a couple whose pickup truck was trapped in surging water west of the Cajon Pass, the Associated Press reports.
Television footage showed rescue crews sending a raft, which was anchored to a firetruck, into rushing brown water so the trapped couple could climb aboard, one by one, from the car's passenger window.
An avalanche trapped two cars and closed California State Highway 89 between the Squaw Valley ski resort and Tahoe City, California, but no injuries were reported. More than two dozen mudslides blocked highways in Central and Southern California Monday morning.
Two women have already died in California and hundreds were evacuated over the weekend.
Ukia Valley Fire Officials said that a 36-year-old woman was killed while she slept when a massive, 125-foot-tall oak tree was uprooted likely by heavy rain and crashed through her home Saturday morning, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports. The woman has yet to be identified, but her boyfriend, who slept next to her in the bed, narrowly escaped the incident when the roof came crashing down on them, just missing him.
Further south, a 23-year-old woman has succumbed to her injuries after she and a companion were swept away by high surf near San Diego Saturday.
The approaching winter storm kicked up high surf; lifeguards told NBC San Diego that waves up to 15 feet high topped with 2 feet of foam made rescue efforts difficult.
(MORE: Severe Outbreak Leaves 19 Dead in the South)
“We did see her, but in the amount of the time, the surge was coming in and out she’d appear and then disappear in the foam,” said Lieutenant Rick Romero.
The two women were swept off the rocks at Santa Cruz Avenue and Bacon Street - near San Diego's iconic Sunset Cliffs - Saturday evening just after 5 p.m.
"They were like right in front of us, they were like right there and then all of a sudden, they were gone,” witness Janice Ambrosiani told CBS 8. "It's not like they were way down in an area where they shouldn't be, we were right on the wall there on the sidewalk."
A bystander helped to rescue the first woman, but lifeguards spent 40 minutes searching for the second woman in the high waves and dense foam.
Massive waves destroyed the S.S. Palo Alto, a historic ship from the World War I era, Sunday. The stern was broken away from the rest of the boat.

Waves crash into the S.S. Palo Alto, a historic World War I era ship, at Rio Del Mar in Aptos, California, on Jan. 21, 2017, after it was torn apart during a storm.
(Kevin Johnson/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)

Mandatory evacuation orders are in place in areas and several mudslides closed highways in the Santa Cruz mountains.
"We're packing and leaving because the muds are coming, the mudslides," Duarte resident Ralph Olivas told KCAL, adding that the risk "comes with the territory living up here."
Some residents refused to leave, even as volunteers went door-to-door Saturday night to alert residents in Duarte of evacuation orders for communities affected by the Fish Fire, ABC 7 reports. The city is opening the Duarte Community Center, 1600 Huntington Dr., as an evacuation center starting Sunday at 7 a.m.
Authorities ordered evacuations near wildfire burn areas in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and Orange counties, the Associated Press reports, citing the possibility of debris flows that could restrict access for emergency responders.
In Santa Clarita, about 120 homes in areas damaged by the Sand Fire were ordered to evacuate Saturday, KTLA reports. An evacuation center is set up at Canyon High School.
A mudslide and fallen trees blocked both lanes of Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains, NBC Bay Area reports, and a semi-truck driver who slammed into the mudslide and had to be towed away from the scene. The slide was cleared shortly after.

Two other minor hazards included a downed tree in the southbound direction near Redwood Estates Road. Another mudslide also blocked the right lane of southbound traffic near Summit Road.
Another small slide closed Highway 9 between Santa Cruz and Felton.
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