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The Heavy equipment arrives in Casitas Springs
Coming down HWY 33 |
When the devastating Thomas Fire of 2017 swept through Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties just last month, on December 4th, 2017, I had a horrible feeling. Call it PTSD! Today is January 10th, 2018, and the news headlines are already talking about Montecito California rebuilding. The above images are NOT from Montecito California today. These images are from thirteen years ago. Images from Highway 33 where it passes through the small hamlet of Casitas Springs California. The date was January 10th, 2005. Thirteen years ago to the day. It then had been raining for two weeks, and 27 inches of rain had already fallen. At its peak, the Ventura River which forms the northern boarder of Casitas Springs was running at over 32,000 Cubic Feet per Second. There were hill slides all over Ventura County being reported in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. Three hill slides were in the hills that surround Casitas Springs. No one seemed to know that one of these slides had blocked a small canyon holding back the heavy rain water until it burst, flooding the town. It didn't capture much news. Headlines read, "HWY 33 Closed due to water!" The BIG news was on the other side of the hills. The La Conchita landslide where 10 People had lost their lives that early morning.
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| La Conchita California, January 10, 2005 |
I was not in the area at the time. I was then living in Davis California. I had just been home to visit and spend the holidays with my family, and had already returned to Davis. My father was a patient at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, and my mother was in a wheel chair recovering from a horrible work related fall. I had been hearing on the news about the rain, and the evacuations in Ventura County. My mom was sheltering in place. Each phone call she would tell me about the rocks and boulders rolling down the creek behind her house. I kept telling her she had to get out of there, but she kept insisting she was fine. Then the day before the mudslide I was somehow able to get her to leave and go stay with Bernice Johnston in Camarillo. Bernice was also in recovery mode, and I had somehow convinced my mom that she could go stay with Bernice and they could help take care of each other as they both recovered.
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| Bernice Johnston & June Howie |
Then the mudslide hit overnight. The next day, my sister Kathy and her husband Greg went to check on our parents home. She then called me to tell me of the slide, and the devastation. I had left all my personal possessions and my car at my parents house. She told me everything was under mud and water, and that my car was buried.
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| FEMA photo by John Shea 15 JAN 2005 Standing on Sycamore Drive, Casitas Springs five days after the slide capturing the corner of the house at 8282 Edison Drive. |
I don't know how I got there, but I rented a white 4X4 truck and headed for Casitas Springs in the middle of the night.
I know I drove down the 101 freeway, and can vaguely remember driving around signs and barriers warning of the road being closed. It didn't really get bad until Foster Park. I had to put the truck into four wheel drive. It was dark, and all I could see was wet mud. I couldn't tell if I was on the road or not. It was like the world had come to an end. I got to Sycamore Drive, but the street was blocked by heavy equipment. I went down one more street and turned onto Ranch Road. I pulled the white rental truck safely in the driveway next to my Chrysler Sebring which was buried and full of water.
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| The white rental truck, my dads Datsun in the garage, and my Chrysler. |
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| Corner of Sycamore Dr. & Edison Dr. |
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| 8346 Edison Dr. |
Days later and there was still mud everywhere. The days, rolled into weeks, which rolled into months. All the neighbors and the community coming together to dig out, and try to get life back to normal.
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| Wayne Anderson - Edison Dr. |
The mudslide of Casitas Springs went into the history books to be forgotten. But for those of us who lived it, we will never forget.
As I write this story, my heart and prayers go out to everyone in Montecito California. The news is reporting fourteen people have lost their lives from the mud, rocks and water that swept down the canyons, and down Hot Springs Road. More than 24 hours later, and rescue crews still cannot get to all the homes, so more people are thought to be lost. It is so tragic. The Santa Barbara Sheriff is reporting that over 80% of the residents sheltered in place. Meaning they didn't evacuate. What I experienced in 2005 is nothing like what has happened in Montecito yesterday. I see the images on TV and I am just shocked. I am very familiar with the area. Montecito was my weekend playground in my teens and twenties. The reporters just have no idea of the loss as they report it. I can tell you, it took years for Casitas Springs to get back to normal. Unfortunately, it is January and the rainy season has just begun. The hills are bare from the recent fires. Montecito is not going to be an easy fix.
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| 99 Sycamore Dr. January 2005 |
Thirteen years later!
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| Google image |
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| 369 Hot Springs Road Montecito California. Google Image |
A very sad update to my post from earlier tonight. It is with a very heavy heart that I have just learned that a friend of mine Peter Robert Fleurat was one of the victims of this tragic mudslide. He was in his home at 369 Hot Springs Road in Montecito California when the slide came down the creek at 3AM. The house and cars were swept away with Peter inside.
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| Peter Robert Fleurat |
His body was recovered a mile downstream at HWY 101.
Peter lived a great life to the fullest. Very active, always hiking, mountain biking, and river rafting. He was preceded in death by his wife Dorothy A Best the widow of the late, famous artist Daniel "Dan" Stookey Lutz. Peter and Dorothy married, February 7th 1981 in Santa Barbara and they remained married until her death on June 12, 1990. They shared the home together of the late artist Dan Lutz, and the home was full of his beautiful works of art. I am told that the home at 369 Hot Springs Road was washed away. Taking the life of Peter along with all the priceless art that Dorothy had kept of her late husband Dan Lutz.
