Six dead in California mudslides

By Alex Veiga
The Associated Press

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Four bodies were found at a Greek Orthodox youth camp in Waterman Canyon, which was smashed yesterday. Authorities did not immediately provide the ages or sex of the victims that were found. Nine of 14 people who had been missing there were children, ages 6 months to 16.

The mudslides were set off on Christmas Day after as much as 3 1/2 inches of rain fell on hillsides that had been stripped of vegetation by wildfires in October and November. With nothing to hold the soil in place, trees and rocks went roaring down the hillsides, along with the dark-brown mud.

"I thought I was going to die," said Brian Delaney, 19, who was trapped up to his neck before rescuers pulled him out of the mud that crashed into the recreation center at a trailer-home encampment in Devore.

Two bodies were found near the trailer camp, San Bernardino County authorities said.

At the Greek Orthodox retreat, the Saint Sophia Camp, 28 people were believed to have been spending Christmas Day with the camp's caretaker when the wall of mud smashed into two cabins. Fourteen of the people were rescued on Christmas Day.

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