MONTECITO, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on the California mudslide disaster (all times local):
8:05 a.m.
Southern California authorities have corrected the number of people missing since the Montecito mudslides to eight.
The correction follows an early Thursday update that raised the number to 48, but the incident management team then issued retraction saying there had been a clerical error.
The number of confirmed fatalities remains at 17.
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7:10 a.m.
The number of people missing after the deadly mudslides in Montecito, California, has surged to 48.
Santa Barbara County spokeswoman Amber Anderson says the new number tallied Thursday follows sheriff's investigations of missing-persons reports.
The number of missing persons has fluctuated since the disaster hit early Tuesday morning and had been as low as 16 on Wednesday evening.
Anderson says the number of confirmed fatalities remains at 17.
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6:26 a.m.
The deadly mudslides that hit Montecito, California, were already occurring when Santa Barbara County officials first sent emergency alerts to cellphones in the area.
County emergency manager Jeff Gater tells the Los Angeles Times that the alert issued around 3:50 a.m. Tuesday was sent because of deteriorating conditions and followed one issued by the National Weather Service.
For days beforehand, the county had issued repeated warnings through social media, news media and community information emails about the potential for mudflows from the huge wildfire scar in the hills above neighborhoods.
Gater tells the Times more than 200,000 emails and other warnings were issued, but the county decided not to use the push alert system to cellphones out of concern that it might not be taken seriously.
Authorities also say only a small percentage of residents heeded mandatory and voluntary evacuation warnings.
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11:42 p.m.
Hundreds of searchers are still hunting for survivors of the flash flooding and mudslides near Santa Barbara, California.
They slogged through ooze and poked long holes into the mud on Wednesday as they searched for victims a day after the massive debris flow passed through.
The death toll from Tuesday's pre-dawn flash flood rose to 17 as more bodies were found. Another 17 were still reported missing.
Authorities are hoped to find them alive.
By Wednesday, some 500 searchers had covered about 75 percent of the inundated area in the search for victims.
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(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez). A firefighter walks among the rocks and mud left by a mudslide Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, in Montecito, Calif. Anxious family members awaited word on loved ones Wednesday as rescue crews searched grimy debris and ruins fo...
(Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP). In this photo provided by Santa Barbara County Fire Department, Teresa Drenick stands in her sister's home damaged after heavy rains off Glen Oaks Lane, while Sean Bornwell retrieves some of h...
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez). Jennifer Markham, second from left, walks under damaged trees with her children and a family friend in Montecito, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Dozens of homes were swept away or heavily damaged and several people we...
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez). Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Search and Rescue crew work in mud and flooded waters in Montecito, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. Dozens of homes were swept away or heavily damaged and several peopl...
(Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP). In this photo provided by Santa Barbara County Fire Department, shows destroyed homes dot the landscape along San Ysidro Creek near East Valley Road in Montecito, Calif. on Wednesday, Jan. 10,...