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Rescue crews on Thursday continued digging through the muddy aftermath of devastating mudslides in Montecito, Calif., where dislodged boulders, fallen trees and thrashed vehicles were still strewn across the landscape.

The scale of the wreckage was staggering: about 100 homes were completely destroyed and another 300 were badly damaged. Seventeen people have been declared dead. And crews continued searching for more than 40 people who had been unaccounted for or declared missing by their families.

Josie Gower was one of the victims.

Just before 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning, she and her boyfriend heard a loud noise downstairs in their home. They went to investigate. When she opened the back door, Ms. Gower was sucked out of her house by the mud, which overpowered her grip on the doorframe.