"We still have two that we are looking for," San Bernardino County dispatch supervisor Elaine Barnett told AFP of the search for a 12-to-14-year-old boy and an eight-month-old baby, though hope they could be alive was small.

San Bernardino Fire Department spokeswoman Tracey Martinez said the 35 rescuers "are very hopeful we will find them today."

Meanwhile authorities urged families to be watchful of threatening rains and ready to evacuate immediately if conditions worsen. More potentially deadly weather was possible Monday and Tuesday.

On Thursday flash floods struck southern California as the usually dry region experienced its first rainy Christmas in 20 years.

Emergency service officials had warned rockslides and mudslides were extremely likely following rains in the mountainous areas, where wildfires burned hundreds of thousands of acres of forest in October.

Avalanches of mud, trees and boulders swept into two campsites, crushing and carrying away everything in their paths.

On Monday, searchers covered the area on foot and dug by hand in order not to disturb the bodies, which slowed the search for the two children still missing.

"To be sure, I don't think we thought we would find this many," sheriff's department spokesman Chip Patterson said.

"We all hope that we will find the other two and that will be better for everybody."

Among the dead are two daughters of the caretaker of a Greek Orthodox Church campground, Jorge Monzon, the sheriff's department said.

He had invited 23 people, many of them Guatemalan immigrants, to the campground for Christmas.

The Greek Orthodox Church said the gathering on its premises was not authorized and that invitations had been given without its knowledge since church officials were aware of the danger of mudslides and rockslides following October's wildfires.

At least 14 other people were injured. All but one were treated at a local hospital and released.

Highways across the stricken area were blocked and closed to all but rescue vehicles.

TERRA.WIRE