Letter to the Board of Supervisors

Dear Supervisors,

I am writing you today to share with you my strong appeal for the Board of Supervisors in Santa Barbara County to approve the request to extend the emergency permit to allow the Debris Flow Nets to stay installed until 2029 and to have Flood Control manage them. 

As you know, in the dark on January 9, 2018, a massive mudslide roared down the mountain. As it did, it fanned up to a 30-foot wave of downed trees, debris, and car-sized boulders when it could not make the creek curve in the jammed-up Montecito Creek underpass. This wall of mud, crashed down, obliterating my family home – with me and my family in it.

My husband, Dave, 49, was killed and impacted with so many traumatic bodily wounds it was as if all of the bones in his body were broken with just flesh holding him together; he was found on the shoreline at Hammond’s Beach 1.5 miles away from our property. My 17-year-old son, Jack, perished and agonizingly was declared “missing.” Our beloved 90-pound dog, Chester, was found crushed, six feet up a tree – next to Lauren’s debris entombment. Terrifyingly, Lauren, our 14-year-old daughter at the time, was buried alive – fully conscious – six hours under 20 feet of mud, part of a roof, two cars, an electrical transformer – before her miraculous rescue. Lauren recalls pushing on the walls of her entombment to no avail for hours. Imagine what that must have been like to endure. Imagine. Her description of her experience is haunting, and it speaks to what it did to her psyche and nervous system. I was washed away the distance of two football fields and found severely injured in the Olive Mill/Hot Springs Triangle median intersection – wrapped in electrical wires on a debris pile. The issue of preventative nets is personal to me. 

Yet, the experience Lauren and I experienced that tragic night pales in comparison to the aftermath. The impact of the trauma to our nervous systems. The grief of a life without our loved ones. The injuries that still have permanent impact. Our new house has nothing in it that reminds us of our home – no family picture albums or kids’ artwork. Nothing. And our family of four was just one example from that night. As you know, 23 people died that night and multiple families and lives were changed forever with lifelong implications. The community was changed. The first responders had to see things humans should never have to experience and they were traumatized. You all know the statistics of number of people injured, homes totally destroyed and damaged. 

The 2018 Debris Flow was a community tragedy – with everyone impacted in one way or another. The decision to extend the permit to keep the netting up is critical for each member of the community and it is personal. It is a solution to help prevent another tragedy like my family and others endured in 2018. 

I hope my appeal helps remind you of the importance of these nets. It is not a question of “if” it will happen again – it is a question of “when.” The Board of Supervisors by extending the permit for the nets to stay in place and have Flood Control manage them, is the solution that makes for a safer community. We don’t get in a car without seatbelts, and we expect our cars to have airbags. In our local mountains, the nets are our seatbelts and airbags that we need to have standard and mandatory, so we prevent more tragedy and loss of life. 

Thank you and please feel free to call me if you need any other information to support this request. 

Sincerely, 

Kim Cantin