Katie Dowd
SFGate, San Francisco
(TNS)
Sep. 18—A woman who went missing while mudslides and storms battered the San Bernardino Mountains has been found dead, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said Friday.
Doris Jagiello, 62, was reported missing on Monday as almost 2 inches of rain pounded Yucaipa Ridge in a single day. The towns of Oak Glen and Forest Falls, where Jagiello lived, are near the burn scar from the El Dorado Fire. The blaze started in 2020 due to a device used in a gender reveal party and burned almost 23,000 acres, killing one firefighter. Burn scars create ideal conditions for a mudslide because there are few thriving trees to hold tight to the ground below, allowing rainwater, debris and rocks to rush down hillsides.
That's exactly what happened near Forest Falls on Monday.
"The mud and debris flow came down through the high steep terrain," San Bernardino fire chief Jim Topoleski told the Associated Press. "This entire area is blanketed with up to 6 feet of mud, debris, large boulders."
A county search and rescue team found Jagiello's body "buried" about 20 feet from her home under several feet of earth.
"As a large debris flow consisting of mud and extremely large boulders raced downhill, it overran Jagiello's property and impacted her home causing significant structural damage and carrying away everything in its path," the sheriff's department said in a statement. One of her three dogs was found alive in the home, but the two others are still missing.
"While this was not the desired outcome, the Sheriff's Department hopes finding Jagiello will bring some measure of closure to Jagiello's family and aid in their healing process," the statement read.
Thirty homes are believed to have been damaged or destroyed in this week's mudslides. The force of mud barreling down the mountain late Monday drove a dumpster through the walls of the Oak Glen Steakhouse and Saloon. A massive tree lodged in the dining room, muck was waist-deep in the kitchen and wine bottles were slathered in mud.
"We have trees in there ... 30 feet long that came straight through our building," said Brandon Gallegos, whose family owns the restaurant. "It's crushing."
Residents in the area had been warned of the danger lurking above them, so they were dismayed but not surprised, Gallegos said. "We were just hoping and praying that it wouldn't happen, but it did happen," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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