Rescue workers waded through thick mud on Wednesday to reach stranded residents, and taken them to safety.Some people had to be pulled out of their homes by helicopters. Local roads were made impassable by mudslides and debris from about 100 of destroyed homes. Last month’s historic wildfires burned trees on the hillsides above Montecito, and so there was not much to hold the mud.The massive slide scattered with them boulders that crashed into homes and vehicles below. In some cases the mud ran right through someone’s home in others it almost covered it all.
“The only word that I can really think of to describe what look like, was look like a world war battle field.” Local officials have ordered thousands of residents to evacuate the area, but only between 10 and 15 percent heeded the order.Many of them had been evacuated during last month’s wildfires and were not ready to pack out again so soon.
“Last night I was told we should evacuate, I said I’m tired of hearing the word.I’m not gonna evacuate, we thought it would be just rain. Okay, we’ve had rain before but nothing like this.”Some people will hit both by the fire and by the mudslides.“First we got burned out at our ranch that caught on fire, and now we’re flooding. So it’s been you know, the last month has been pretty bad.This has happened before, but I think it’s the worst because there was the fire. Because of the burnt, there’s more debris than normal.”
The Santa Barbara County, sandwiched between the verdant mountains and the Pacific coast, has long attracted affluent families and celebrities,like Oprah Winfrey whose estate also suffered some damage in mudslides.
“There used to be a fence right here, that’s my neighbour’s house. Devastated.”Some 300 people were trapped in their homes early Wednesday with more than 20 reported missing. The authorities declared an area of about 8000 hectares a public safety exclusion zone, allowing only emergency crews to come in. Many homes were cut off from electricity and water.