Tag archives: natural disasters
Back in 2018, when the Montecito debris flows left huge swaths of the village buried under hundreds of tons of mud and other detritus, the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade (SBBB) was all over the news. The first responders had moved on, and the job of digging out was just beginning. Nearly every outlet around ran […]
We’ve worked with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on a number of fronts: homeowner’s insurance (and the lack of it in California), claims, legislation, and preparedness. Last week, he hosted quite the townhall on emergency preparedness, as part of the partnership the Department of Insurance has with the Governor’s emergency response and readiness agencies. We’ve […]
One805’s original Kick Ash Bash was a legendary gathering that will forever be etched in the community’s consciousness. This huge star-studded event and concert in early 2018 was held at Bella Vista Ranch and Polo Club in Summerland to celebrate our community’s first responders after the Thomas Fire and Montecito debris flows. But the event’s […]
In a bittersweet ceremony, Montecito’s The Project for Resilient Communities (TPRC) on Sunday received a prestigious national award for the private-public project that installed protective ring nets in canyons where deadly torrents surged down in the 1/9 disaster. Three leaders of the Virginia-based ReadyCommunities Partnership, which spotlights and supports efforts across the nation demonstrating “resiliency […]
Remember the 2018 devastating debris flow that changed Montecito forever? Those of us who lived here at the time do. Like it happened yesterday, with all the pain and loss and destruction it brought. But for those who made Montecito their home post-debris flow (or PDF as I like to call it), the knowledge of […]
The Santa Barbara coastal region has largely escaped any major disasters in the past year, save, of course, for the ongoing crisis with COVID-19. There haven’t been any major fires striking between Carpinteria and western Goleta, and no serious flooding despite the recent record-setting string of rainstorms. On the other hand, some folks out by […]
ShelterBox’s reason for being is because human displacement is one of the biggest issues plaguing our planet, one that’s increasing as time goes on. Over the last year, the nonprofit reports, the number of people displaced due to conflicts, natural disasters, or the consequences of climate change has grown to 113 million people, a staggering […]
Excavation of a new debris basin along Randall Road and San Ysidro Creek in Montecito will begin in early May, officials said this week, more than three years after a river of mud and boulders jumped the banks on January 9, 2018, destroying six out of seven homes in the 600 block of Randall Road […]
I’m sure anyone who lived here in 2018 feels a wave of relief as they drive by the soon-to-be active construction site at East Valley Road and Randall Road – where a (once) tranquil neighborhood is about to be transformed into a debris basin. It’s also bittersweet because many of us knew Randall Road residents […]
Everybody in town likely knows about One805. Sure, they’re the organization who three years ago created the “Kick Ash Bash,” mounting the massive benefit concert as a way of thanking both the firefighters whose brave stand against the Thomas Fire in December 2017 saved untold homes in Montecito, as well as honoring the already weary […]
The Day The Hill Came Down First, of course, there was the fire. The Thomas Fire, so named because it began on the campus of Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula before devouring nearly 300,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara County along with nearly one thousand homes and/or structures. Following California’s cycle of cataclysms, […]
While most of us in Montecito were making merry over the holiday season, former City of Santa Barbara Fire Chief, Pat McElroy, who is now Executive Director of the Partnership (Partnership for Resilient Communities), was pounding the halls of government, along with Montecito land use attorney Joe Cole, permitting guru Suzanne Elledge, and local government […]
Going forward, Montecito home and business owners need to have continuing, affordable, comprehensive, insurance coverage. As a community, we need to speak with one voice in demanding that public officials ensure that such insurance remains in place. Here are three of the issues that will have to be addressed by lawmakers, insurance regulators, and insurance […]
After receiving clearance from Montecito Water District that the boil-water notice was lifted in the majority of Montecito, most businesses and restaurants in the upper and lower villages were back in business over the weekend, marking another milestone in the recovery process. Los Arroyos reopened its doors on February 2, despite the lack of internet […]
Last week, thousands of displaced Montecito residents were allowed to go back to their homes, after being mandatorily evacuated for more than two weeks following the mudflow event on January 9. The majority of Montecito residents and business owners are slowly getting back to their day-to-day routine, as others have spent the last week removing […]
Being a writer and one of the lucky ones to have survived the recent California Thomas Fire and Montecito mudslides, I feel compelled to try to express what others and I are feeling. I’ve rarely had a difficult time putting my feelings into words, but these two experiences have truly left me scrambling. I’ve been […]
Our family’s story involves almost all the children who were killed during this terrible tragedy. You see, we own (I guess I should say owned) a house directly next to the Taylor and Benitez families. There is nothing left. Literally, nothing. What’s worse is that our dear friends and neighbors were pummeled by the storm, […]
Last month, after a mandatory evacuation because of the Thomas Fire that destroyed 1,063 homes, which saw me fleeing to animal activist Gretchen Lieff‘s ranch near Santa Maria, and then flying to England to spend Yuletide at a 400-year-old cottage in Cornwall with Santa Barbara Polo Club sponsor Cat Pollon, I thought the disruption was […]
On January 12 at 5 pm, I received media clearance at the corner of Coast Village Road and Coast Village Circle from the SBPD to view the large-scale Thomas Fire Flood rescue and clean-up operations along CVR through Olive Mill Road to Virginia Road. The SBPD asked that the MJ emphasize to all readers the […]
The catastrophic fire and flood of 2017-18 has changed the face of a number of parts of Montecito for years to come. The mud and debris flow that came down the mountains behind us tossed cars around like Tinker toys and ripped homes off their foundations, filling the landscape with toxic mud and mold. Many […]
