AREA SLIDE TOLL RISES SEVEN DEAD, NINE MISSING.

Byline: Andrea Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Seven people were confirmed dead and at least nine others were missing Friday after a wall of mud and water cascaded down blackened slopes in the San Bernardino Mountains on Christmas Day.

Inside flood-ravaged Waterman Canyon, debris-flattened buildings, twisted steel girders and broken bridges stood as evidence of the deadly mudslide.

``I thought I was going to die,'' said Brian Delaney, 19, who described mud crashing into the KOA camp recreation center in Devore and trapping him up to his neck before rescuers pulled him out.

``I've never heard anything like it,'' said Waterman Canyon resident Sandy Hunt, 60, who had just sat down to Christmas dinner when the flood hit at 6 p.m. ``It sounded like a freight train coming outside.''

Despite repeated warnings of mudslides in communities where fires destroyed more than 91,000 acres in San Bernardino and the mountain communities in late October, San Bernardino County officials who visited flood sites Friday said the only safety assurance was not being there.

``Mother Nature is very powerful and you basically just get out of its way,'' said Theodore Golondzinier, assistant director of operations for San Bernardino County's Department of Public Works.

Hit hardest by the floods was Saint Sophia Camp and Retreat Center - a Greek Orthodox youth camp owned by Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Los Angeles - where at least five bodies had been found. Fire officials said as many as 28 people were spending Christmas with the caretaker of the camp when a slide ripped through at least two buildings.

Fourteen people were rescued, and at least nine others remained missing late Friday. Many of the missing were believed to be children ranging from 6 months old to 16 years of age.

The Rev. John Bakus said the retreat had been closed to the public indefinitely with only the live-in caretaker having access, and that the people there were not authorized to be on the property.

``I have no idea who these people were or what they were doing there,'' he said. ``This was not a church-sponsored event. We were not renting the site to anyone. We wouldn't rent it because there is still some smoke and soot damage from the (October) fire.''

Though the church was aware of dangers after the fire, Bakus said, it had not received any information about flood warnings from the county.

``We haven't received anything, no letters nor any warnings of any kind about flooding,'' he said.

Two bodies also were found near the KOA campground about five miles west of Waterman Canyon. The victims were identified as Carroll Nuss, 56, of Willington, Kan., and Janice Arlene-Bradley, 60, who was the caretaker of the campground.

Evacuation plans had been in place for Waterman Canyon and other fire- scarred areas of the San Bernardino Mountains at high risk for flooding and mudslides, but the denuded hillsides collapsed too quickly to escape, authorities said.

``We had torrential rain in a short amount of time,'' said Tracey Martinez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department. ``The ground just broke loose. The mountain couldn't withstand it. It happened way too fast.''

The torrential rain that triggered the landslide had been predicted, said Robert Balfour, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.

Forecasters had predicted that 5.6 inches of rain would fall on the area between 4 a.m. Thursday and 4 a.m. Friday, and 4.21 inches of precipitation was recorded less than two miles from Waterman Canyon during that period, Balfour said.

A flash-flood warning for the area was issued at 1:44 p.m. Thursday and broadcast on local radio and television stations, Balfour said. The first mudslide in Waterman Canyon was reported six minutes later.

It was unclear whether the people at Saint Sophia Camp received the warnings.

Even if the campers didn't hear the warnings, they should have understood the danger, Balfour said.

``Somewhere common sense would have to dictate,'' he said. ``Everyone knew that there had been fires, and that mudslides were possible.''

Authorities have worked with Saint Sophia Camp for more than a year to develop an evacuation plan in case of fire or flood, but those visiting the camp were unfamiliar with the area and the steep, fire-ravaged slope behind the camp collapsed without warning, Martinez said.

Martinez couldn't say whether Waterman Canyon, with its steep walls, narrow two-lane road, numerous year-round residents, and only two points of access had been placed as a priority for restoration. She referred all inquiries to the U.S. Forest Service, which did not return calls for comment Friday, a federal holiday.

The Burned Area Emergency Response Team, a coalition of state and federal agencies, was responsible for rehabilitating the area after the fires. Representatives of BAER, who state their mission as protecting life, property, water supplies and ecosystems, also were unavailable for comment Friday.

A U.S. Forest Service dispatcher who declined to give his name said the BAER Team assigned to the San Bernardino Mountains disbanded Dec. 17 because its work was completed.

The National Resources Conservation Service, a federal agency that was included in the BAER Team, completed three projects in the San Bernardino Mountains that addressed urgent threats to lives or property, but it was unclear whether Waterman Canyon was included in that assessment, spokesman Paul Laustsen said.

Funding for additional projects wasn't approved before Congress recessed earlier this month, Laustsen said.

``I saw the mudslides on television and was just cringing,'' he said. ``To have those mudflows come down on them and be trapped is just horrific.''

Staff Writers Annette Wells, Guy McCarthy, Joe Nelson and Teresa Rochester and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Andrea Cavanaugh, [phone]

andrea.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) In the photo above, Mildred Najera, left, weeps in the arms of an unidentified woman Friday near San Bernardino as she waits for word about a loved one missing in Waterman Canyon. Left, washed away when mud swept through Devore. Two bodies were found and identified from a KOA campground, one a visitor from Kansas and the other the camp's caretaker.

David Creamer/Staff Photographer

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press