Hope And Despair In La Conchita

As what used to be a 30-foot-deep pile of mud and debris hardened into a concrete-like pile, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke with survivors and took a firsthand assessment of the mudslide disaster.

The governor said it was important for him to

"It's extraordinary how people have come together," Schwarzenegger said.

But residents of the seaside hamlet of La Conchita, Calif., are still digging into the hard earth and mourning their 10 dead, including three young daughters and the wife of survivor Jimmie Wallet.

"In the past few days, we have seen the power of nature cause damage and despair, but we will match that power with our own resolve," Schwarzenegger said.

Hughes reports that residents are showing their determination to rebuild, but tempers flared during the governor's visit Wednesday. One resident, Karen Oren, said a similar slide a decade ago should have been adequate warning to the government that the community needed protection.

"Ten years ago we asked to have the hill terraced, we were told it was too expensive it couldn't be done," Oren told Schwarzenegger. "How much money have they spent on the rescue now of dead bodies?"

The storms also were blamed for flooding that destroyed houses in Arizona and Utah.

At least three people are still missing and possibly trapped in the debris of the mudslide that hit La Conchita Monday after five days of nearly nonstop rain.

Overall, the storm's confirmed death toll in California has risen to 25.

Firefighters are still hopeful they might still find at least some people alive, while acknowledging that any survivors would have to be found quickly.

"It is possible for a person to survive if they're in an air pocket for about 4-5 days, so we're going to keep digging until we get through the rubble and see if there is anybody left," Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Foy told CBS Radio station KNX.

No one lost more than resident Jimmie Wallet in Monday's mudslide. Wallet dug for hours in the rain around where he thought the family might be. He helped rescue two people before he stopped and waited, smoking cigarettes as friends stopped by to embrace him. Early Wednesday, after 36 hours, his wait ended.

His wife, Mechelle, was the first to be found. Around 2 a.m., firefighters and several of Wallet's friends carried her to the makeshift morgue at the town's gas station. Wallet went in and identified her, then returned to the porch of a peach stucco house where he had been staying, put up his feet and sat without a word.

Two hours later, his youngest daughter, 2-year-old Paloma, was taken out on a stretcher. Her sister Raven, 6, was next, soon followed by 10-year-old Hannah.

The three girls were found next to each other. Rescue workers standing atop the ruins silently leaned on their shovels.

"They never had a chance to get out," said Scott Hall, a battalion chief with Ventura County Fire Department. "It appeared they were sitting on a couch unaware of the slide."

His fourth daughter, a 16-year-old, had been in nearby Ventura when the slide happened.

As workers searched for the missing in La Conchita, Wallet said in interviews with The Associated Press that he moved to this free-spirited beach town 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles from Ventura. The family lived in a household of 10, including Charles Womack, a 51-year-old musician also killed in the mudslide.

Wallet, a 37-year-old construction worker who has thick dreadlocks and is nicknamed "Gator," said they played music and hung out on an old bus with a rooftop patio. Engraved over his home's front gate were the words "Music is love."

Residents of La Conchita said Wallet sang with his kids, took them to the beach and walked around town with Hannah on his shoulders. His wife stayed home with the children and was "powerful, such a rock," said Vera Long, who lived three houses down.

"They were incredibly beautiful children. They had these sparkling, intelligent, deeply soulful eyes. Just incredibly loving," Long said. "The only comfort I can derive is that they were all together."

The rainstorm that triggered the slide continued to bedevil the West, causing floods that destroyed houses in Arizona in Utah, washed out roads and forcing dozens of people from their homes. No serious injuries were reported, but one man was missing in Utah.