Montecito mudslide death toll rises to 20 with 4 others missing

Rescuers in Montecito
(Image credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

The death toll from last week's Montecito mudslides in Southern California rose to at least 20 people on Sunday. The body of the latest victim, 30-year-old Pinit Sutthithepa, was found on Saturday afternoon. Police are still searching for at least four people in the area. One is Sutthithepa's 2-year-old daughter, Lydia. Authorities said Sunday that the chances of finding more survivors had dwindled so they had transitioned from rescue work to the search-and-recovery phase. "This decision was not made lightly," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. At least 73 homes were destroyed and 61 others were damaged.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.