Death toll from California mudslides rises to 18

Search and rescue workforce staff stroll earlier a demolished property in Montecito, California on January 12, 2018. Heavy rains on January 9 despatched rivers of waist-high mud and particles flowing from the hills into Montecito and utterly totally different cities in Santa Barbara County northwest of Los Angeles, that are nonetheless recovering from final month's ferocious wildfires. No less than 17 folks died and dozens of residents are nonetheless unaccounted for.FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP

Authorities in southern California talked about Friday they'd found the physique of an aged man killed by mudslides that battered the realm earlier this week, lifting the general lack of life toll to 18.

The 87-year-old man was "situated by a search and rescue workforce in his residence," talked about Invoice Brown, the sheriff of Santa Barbara county.

Rescuers are persevering with their search operations, with the lacking now numbering seven, together with a two-year-old woman, according to the Santa Barbara sheriff's workplace.

Heavy rain on Tuesday, which adopted 10 months of drought, despatched sticky mud and particles flowing from the hills into Montecito.

Along with the ineffective and injured, 65 properties have been destroyed whereas one totally different 462 sustained hurt.

Terrifying wildfires compelled folks to evacuate in December, and the mudslides struck merely two weeks after they returned.

The fires burned most vegetation, leaving good circumstances for the newest catastrophe to unfold.