Mudslide claims 12 lives in California

A succession of storms, which have brought heavy snow to parts of Northern California and astonishing amounts of rain to the south, were blamed for the deaths of at least 12 people, turning normally mild Southern California into a giant flood zone.

In La Conchita, a small community of houses wedged onto a spit of land between the hills south of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean, a massive mudslide Monday killed three people, injured eight and left at least 21 unaccounted for.