A huge mudslide crashed down on homes in a coastal hamlet with terrifying force Monday, killing three people and leaving up to 12 missing as a Pacific storm hammered Southern California for a fourth straight day. Ventura County Fire Department Chief Bob Roper said as many as a dozen residents were missing in the mudslide that pummeled a four-block area of homes in tiny La Conchita, about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Eight people were injured, including a 60-year-old man who was buried for three hours. The three confirmed dead were all adult males. As rescuers combed the debris, geology experts with air horns watched the hillside above, ready to sound an alarm if it moved. But as a driving rainstorm pounded the area late Monday, authorities decided it was too dangerous to continue searching through the mud and debris, which had piled up 30 feet high. The mudslide brought the number of dead from the latest wave of storms to 12 in California. The storms have sent rainfall totals to astonishing levels, turning normally mild Southern California into a giant flood zone. The hillside in La Conchita cascaded down 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. Rescuers dropped listening devices into the rubble to try to locate victims before another downpour of up to 2 inches of rain was expected before dawn Tuesday. The destruction at La Conchita was the worst disaster of the storms to date, but mudslides and flooding were reported throughout the region, blocking road and rail travel and forcing a shutdown of interstate petroleum supply lines. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A boulder some 25 feet high blocks both lanes of the Topanga Caynon Road, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005, as electrical contractors fix broken power and communication lines in Malibu, Calif. (AP)