Officials warned residents of a California hamlet today that the steep hills overlooking their community could collapse again as the death toll from a mudslide rose to 10 with six still missing.
Rescue workers continued to search for survivors trapped in the 30-foot-deep (10 metre) mound of earth that swallowed some 15 homes in La Conchita, about 80 miles (130 km) north of Los Angeles.
Part of a hillside that towered over the seaside enclave collapsed on Monday after weeks of drenching rain unleashed torrents of mud that buried a four-block area within seconds.
At a hastily called town meeting at a Red Cross evacuation center, officials warned residents that more slides were likely and that the mud and debris were still moving and unstable.
"We consider that the whole area of La Conchita is unsafe," Ventura County Deputy Fire Chief said.
"We want people out of the area." As the names of the 10 confirmed dead were read out, residents and sheriff's deputies wept.
But when the names another 10 presumed buried were read out, four of them stood up in the room to announce that they had survived, prompting a round of applause from the 150 or so gathered from the tightly knit town.
Earlier, Ventura County Fire Chief had cautioned that the number of missing remained uncertain because members of the bohemian beachfront community came and went without much notice. "Nobody signed a guest book," he said.
Meanwhile, emergency teams used picks, shovels, axes, fiber-optic cameras, sensitive audio equipment, dogs and even their bare hands as they dug down looking for crevices large enough to shelter potential survivors.