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 The body of a man in his 40's was found inside a vehicle that was discovered Tuesday buried in several feet of mud in Palmdale, in the same spot a local resident said she saw a vehicle drop into a culvert and get covered in water during last week's severe storm. 
 
 Firefighters were called to buried vehicle in the 41600 block of Karen Drive (map) at 12:50 p.m., according to Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Randall Wright. 
 
 The vehicle was believed to have been buried in the Oct. 15 storm that wreaked havoc in many parts of the Antelope Valley, said Deputy Jodi Wolfe of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Palmdale Station. 
 
 Video from the scene showed a backhoe and inmate firefighters digging around the vehicle. 
 
 "As they began to dig further down they discovered what appeared to be a human hand protruding from the vehicle," LASD Lt. Victor Lewandowski said. 
 
 At least one body was inside the vehicle, and it was not known if there were more, Nicole Nishida with the Sheriff's Department said earlier in the day. 
 
 Lewandowski later described the sole victim as a white man in his late 40's. 
 
 Sheriff's homicide detectives were called to the scene as a matter of standard procedure in what was considered a "death investigation." 
 
 There were no signs of foul play, according to authorities at the scene, who said all signs pointed to a tragic accident during the recent flash floods. 
 
 After nearly 10 hours, the vehicle was finally pulled from what was described as a 12 foot deep concrete drainage ditch. 
 
 A neighbor who lives near the scene said she saw a black minivan or SUV drive through several feet of water and then go into a deep ditch during the storm. 
 
 "It went nose first, and then you saw the back axle just continue to sink down, and that was it," local resident Stacey Horwood said. "The water just kept going and going and going, and nothing came up." 
 
 Horwood said she called 911 and authorities came out to look for the vehicle, but it was not found. She's been wondering what happened to the vehicle since. 
 
 "Devastating. My heart's been breaking every day," Horwood said. 
 
 Horwood and others in the area said they pressured officials to come back out and search one more time, an effort that led to Tuesday's discovery. 
 
 The city of Palmdale declared a local disaster in the wake of the storm, and the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to declare a proclaim a state of emergency for northern parts of L.A. County. 
 
 Northwest of Palmdale, Elizabeth Lake, Lake Hughes and Leona Valley were hit hard. And north of Palmdale, nearly 200 cars were stranded by powerful mudflows that shut down Highway 58 near Mojave. 
 
 KTLA's Kennedy Ryan and Jennifer Thang contributed to this article. 
 
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 Editorial note: A video previously featured in this article has been removed after a witness who spoke to KTLA later said she gave an inaccurate recollection of events following flooding near her home on Oct. 15, 2015. ||||| The Leona Valley, just west of Palmdale, was the hardest hit, with rain falling six inches an hour and winds gusting to 60 mph at 4:20 p.m., according to the weather service. The storm eventually diminished, but as it moved eastward, it brought record daily rainfall to Palmdale. Ten homes were damaged in Palmdale, city officials said. ||||| PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — A body and a car buried under feet of mud have been found at the scene of a flash flood that inundated a road northeast of Los Angeles last week. 
 
 The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says fire crews excavating the car off a road in Palmdale discovered the body Tuesday afternoon. Homicide investigators are heading to the scene. 
 
 It could be the first death related to a storm last Thursday that sent a wave of water sluicing through the Mojave Desert roadway. 
 
 Flooding also mired more than 100 cars and trucks in tons of mud farther north on State Route 58 in Kern County. Crews have carted away the mud and expect to clear those roads within 24 hours. 
 
 Meanwhile, the search for a 67-year-old man swept away during flooding at the foot of the Tehachapi Mountains area was suspended Tuesday because deep mud made it too dangerous.
– A man's body was found in a vehicle buried in mud by a severe storm in Los Angeles County, but authorities aren't certain that it was the storm that killed him: The sheriff's department has sent homicide detectives to investigate the grim find made by firefighters Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles Times reports. The vehicle was under several feet of mud near a road in Palmdale and if foul play wasn't involved, the death may be the first one confirmed to have been caused by last Thursday's storm, which left scores of cars and trucks stuck in tons of mud on roadways in the region,the AP reports. Police say the victim is a white man in his 40s. Palmdale resident Stacy Horwood says she believes the vehicle is one that she saw disappear into a ditch after driving through several feet of water during the storm. "It went nose first, and then you saw the back axle just continue to sink down, and that was it," she tells KTLA. "The water just kept going and going and going, and nothing came up." She says she called 911 at the time, but authorities didn't find the vehicle and it was only uncovered after she pressured them to have another look. "My heart's been breaking every day," she says. (Last month, a flash flood turned a first date deadly in San Bernardino National Forest.)