8 Missing as Death Toll in California Mudslides Climbs to 18

A car and debris smashed against a tree along Hot Springs Road in Montecito, California. (AP)
A car and debris smashed against a tree along Hot Springs Road in Montecito, California. (AP)
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8 Missing as Death Toll in California Mudslides Climbs to 18

A car and debris smashed against a tree along Hot Springs Road in Montecito, California. (AP)
A car and debris smashed against a tree along Hot Springs Road in Montecito, California. (AP)

The death toll in the southern California mudslides has risen to 18 as rescue crews continued to search for five missing people. In addition to the dead and injured, 65 houses have been destroyed while another 462 sustained damage.

About 1,250 emergency workers raced against the clock to find survivors with drones, heavy equipment and sniffer dogs in the rescue and clean-up efforts, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said.

The latest victim, 87-year-old Joseph Bleckel, was found in his Montecito home on Friday, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said, adding that the remaining missing were between the ages of 2 and 30.

“We’ve got a window that’s closing, but we’re still very optimistic. There’s been plenty of cases where they’ve found people a week after,” Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason said earlier on a muddy Montecito street especially hard-hit by the mudslide.

Triggered by heavy rains, the massive slides struck before dawn on Tuesday. Walls of mud and debris cascaded down hillsides stripped of trees and shrubs by last month’s wildfires, including the Thomas Fire, the largest blaze in the state’s history.

Officials said secondary searches of damaged structures were under way. The mudslide have damaged hundreds of buildings and caked highways with sludge.

The number of missing has fluctuated as people were located, said the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said on Thursday night that 43 people were unaccounted for.

Residents in some areas were subject to a new mandatory evacuation on Friday, emergency officials said, adding the unstable environment remained a threat.

Excavators carrying rescuers in their buckets plowed through mud-coated roads in search of the missing after some areas were buried in as much as 15 feet (4.6 m) of mud, emergency officials said.

“It is heavy. It’s wet. It just exhausts the crews out there,” Sacramento Fire Department Captain Pat Costamagna said in a social media video from the governor’s emergency management office.

County officials have already ordered residents in most of the southeastern corner of Montecito, an unincorporated community east of the city of Santa Barbara, to leave their homes for what they said was likely to be one or two weeks to aid the search and recovery efforts.

In one of the worst-hit areas of Montecito, mud blew through doors and windows, filling the interiors of houses with muck and debris. The walls at one end of a home had disappeared, leaving its roof hanging precariously.

Downed power lines wrapped around trees at one property, while elsewhere the lines dropped almost to the ground. Elsewhere, cars were perched on mounds of earth and garage doors had caved in.

The area, northwest of Los Angeles, is home to many celebrities and other wealthy Californians who relish the seclusion and relative proximity to the city.

The cause of death for most of the victims will be listed as multiple traumatic injuries resulting from flash floods with mudslides, the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s office said Thursday. The dead ranged in age from 3 to 89.

One of California’s most celebrated roads, coastal Highway 101, was closed in parts of Santa Barbara County where mud was 2 feet deep in parts.

Residents of the mudslide-hit area were assessing their damaged homes, with some grateful their properties had survived.

“We have a yard to redo and hopefully our insurance will help out with that, but the people across from me, newer homes, gone,” said Garrett Speirs, a 54-year-old artist who has been living in Montecito for 20 years.



Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, gives a statement after meeting with the Slovenian parliament's Friendship Group with Palestine, in Ljubljana, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Jure Makovec / AFP)
Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, gives a statement after meeting with the Slovenian parliament's Friendship Group with Palestine, in Ljubljana, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Jure Makovec / AFP)
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Rights Defenders Denounce US Sanctions on UN Expert on Palestinians

Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, gives a statement after meeting with the Slovenian parliament's Friendship Group with Palestine, in Ljubljana, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Jure Makovec / AFP)
Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, gives a statement after meeting with the Slovenian parliament's Friendship Group with Palestine, in Ljubljana, on July 10, 2025. (Photo by Jure Makovec / AFP)

Human rights defenders rallied on Thursday to support the top UN expert on Palestinian rights, after the United States imposed sanctions on her over what it said was unfair criticism of Israel.

Italian lawyer Francesca Albanese serves as special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, one of dozens of experts appointed by the 47-member UN Human Rights Council to report on specific global issues.

She has long criticized Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, and this month published a report accusing over 60 companies, including some US firms, of supporting Israeli settlements in the West Bank and military actions in Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday Albanese would be added to the US sanctions list for work which had prompted what he described as illegitimate prosecutions of Israelis at the International Criminal Court.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged Washington to reverse course, Reuters reported.

"Even in the face of fierce disagreement, UN Member States should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures," he said.

The sanctions on Albanese set a dangerous precedent, said the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, adding that the special rapporteurs do not report to Guterres and he has no authority over them.

"The use of unilateral sanctions against special rapporteurs, or any other UN official or expert, is unacceptable," said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

Juerg Lauber, the Swiss permanent representative to the UN who now holds the rotating presidency of the Human Rights Council, said he regretted the sanctions, and called on states to "refrain from any acts of intimidation or reprisal" against the body's experts.

'OPENS THE GATES'

Mariana Katzarova, who serves as the special rapporteur for human rights in Russia, said her concern was that other countries would follow the US lead.

"This is totally unacceptable and opens the gates for any other government to do the same," she told Reuters. "It is an attack on UN system as a whole. Member states must stand up and denounce this."

Russia has rejected Katzarova's mandate and refused to let her enter the country, but it has so far stopped short of publicly adding her to a sanctions list.

Washington has already imposed sanctions against officials at the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for suspected war crimes in Gaza. Another court, the International Court of Justice, is hearing a case brought by South Africa that accuses Israel of genocide.

Israel denies that its forces have carried out war crimes or genocide against Palestinians in the war in Gaza, which was precipitated by an attack by Hamas-led fighters in October 2023.

"The United States is working to dismantle the norms and institutions on which survivors of grave abuses rely," said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.

The group's former head, Kenneth Roth, called the US sanctions an attempt "to deter prosecution of Israeli war crimes and genocide in Gaza".

The United States, once one of the most active members of the Human Rights Council, has disengaged from it under President Donald Trump, alleging an anti-Israel bias.