LA CONCHITA, Calif. - Rain lashed water-logged California again early Tuesday, hampering efforts to find survivors buried under a mudslide that killed at least three people and prompting hundreds to flee a mountain town as a rain-engorged lake spilled over a dam.

A succession of storms, which have brought heavy snow to parts of Northern California and astonishing amounts of rain to the south, was blamed for the deaths of at least 12 people, turning normally mild Southern California into a giant flood zone.

The storm was forecast to taper off late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

In La Conchita, a small community wedged between the hills south of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean, a massive mudslide Monday killed three people, injured eight and left at least 21 unaccounted for.

Some of those 21 potential victims may have been out of town, but firefighters were certain at least some were trapped in the 15 homes crushed under a pile of mud 30 feet high.

Three residents were pulled alive from pockets in the rubble after they were located with listening devices shortly before the search was suspended Monday night due to fears of another slide.

Rescuers resumed their search before daybreak Tuesday when they detected what appeared to be slight movement in the mud and debris.

Among the missing was a 34-year-old mother and her three daughters, ages nine, five and two, said Gary Gallardo, who hitchhiked to the scene to help dig by hand through what remained of his brothers home.

Fire officials advised rescuers to "look for small hands and small fingers," said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna.

Geology experts with air horns watched the hillside above, ready to sound an alarm if it moved.

'Huge rumble sound'

The hillside had cascaded down Monday afternoon like a brown river as authorities were evacuating about 200 residents from the area. Trees and vegetation were carried away, leaving huge gashes of raw earth on the bluff.

"It lasted a long time. It was slow-moving. The roofs of the houses were crashing and creaking real loud and there was a huge rumble sound," said Robert Cardoza, a construction worker who was clearing debris from a nearby highway.

Some residents made their way from the area clutching pets, luggage or clothing as the huge mass of mud bore down. Some huddled together or cried as they talked on cell phones.

"You could hear people screaming and crying out, people honking their horns you know from on the highway and everybody looking up and running as fast as they can to get out," said Kathleen Wood, a resident of La Conchita.

La Conchita is a slip of a town pressed between a highway and a towering coastal bluff. Several houses were damaged by a mudslide here during powerful storms in the 1990s.

Some 20 miles away, about 350 people in the Ventura County town of Piru took shelter overnight at a nearby elementary school after the entire town of 2,000 residents was advised to evacuate.

"Lake Piru is filling faster than its releasing water," said Rod Megli, division chief for the Ventura County Fire Department. "That volume of water could affect a number of residents. Wed rather be safe than sorry."

Shortly before midnight Monday, water from the lake began spilling over Santa Felicia Dam and heading for the agricultural town on the edge of Los Padres National Forest, 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

Some Piru residents, however, refused to leave.

"God is with me and Im not afraid of anything," said Moses Hernandez, refusing to abandon his Elvas Center Market even though others waiting out the storm had cleaned out most of his supplies. "Im out of everything  eggs, milk, potato chips."

The storm shut down a large section of Highway 101 between Santa Barbara and Ventura. The section that runs past La Conchita was filled with fire trucks, lights, generators and other emergency equipment.

Other mudslides feared

It also forced the evacuation of a 77-unit apartment complex in Alhambra, a suburb on the edge of Los Angeles, where authorities feared a rain-saturated hill behind the building might give way.

In neighboring Glendale, Glendale Community College was ordered closed Tuesday because of fears of mudslides. Roads all over Southern California were being closed periodically because of high water.

The storm also triggered daring rescue efforts throughout the region.

In the San Dimas Canyon area, firefighters used a raft to rescue a toddler until it tipped over and flung everyone into the floodwaters. Two firefighters went after the baby and one of them managed to carry the child gingerly through the rushing waters to safety.

On Sunday, firefighters had managed to throw a line to a man and pull him to safety after his car plunged into a Southern California creek. It took two attempts when the man lost his grip the first time.

"There are certain times in this job when you wouldnt change this job for anything," Capt. Mike Yule of the Santa Fe Springs Fire Department said after the successful rescue.

In Palmdale, on the edge of the Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles, rescue workers in a helicopter plucked a woman and two of her children from a car floating down a rain-filled wash, but the woman lost her grip on a third child and the 2-year-old girl drowned.

Rainfall amounts

The storm dumped record rainfall on much of Southern California. Twelve inches of rain fell on Ojai between Thursday and Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

More than 11 inches drenched Beverly Hills, 8 inches fell on Burbank and 6.5 inches on downtown Los Angeles. Nordhoff Ridge in the Ventura County mountains accumulated more than 26 inches, Opids Camp in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles had more than 27 inches and San Marcos Pass in the Santa Barbara County mountains had more than 23 inches.

"Ive never seen such a sustained event like this," said meteorologist Bruce Rockwell.

The storm system, which has already dumped more than a dozen feet of snow on much of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California, was expected to pile up 3 more feet before subsiding late Tuesday.

The heavy rainfall was being generated by a sluggish low-pressure system rotating off California and drawing a flow of moisture known as a "Pineapple Express" up from the subtropical Pacific near Hawaii.