Feature: A California affluent community reels from deadly mudslides

by Julia Pierrepont III

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The streets of Montecito in Santa Barbara Country in the western U.S. state of California resembled a battlefield Wednesday, choked with mud, downed trees, snapped utility poles, crumpled cars and crushed houses.

People moved wearily through the cement-like slurry, picking through the rubble of their homes, looking for missing loved ones, some just staring into space.

Nearly 3,400 residents in Montecito are without water or power, and over 300 are trapped in their homes Wednesday morning as first responders scramble to conduct rescue work in the wake of the devastating flash floods and deadly mudslides, which left at least 15 dead, 25 injured, and dozens missing, confirmed County spokeswoman Yaneris Muniz.

This affluent, upscale community near the famed San Ysidro Ranch with its sprawling, multimillion dollar homes and lush rolling lawns was previously best known as site of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy's honeymoon with his bride, Jackie Bouvier, in 1953, and for its current celebrity residents comedy TV Talk show host, Ellen Degeneres; 4-time Golden Globe acting nominee, Rob Lowe; and media mogul, Oprah Winfrey.

Local resident, Kristin Denault, was jerked awake in the middle of the night when Santa Barbara's emergency bulletin alarm system blared from her cellphone. She told Xinhua, "It was scary. We are all reeling. It's hard to believe tragedy has struck again so soon after the fires."

Well before dawn early Tuesday morning, a thundering juggernaut of unstoppable mud and debris swept down upon the sleeping community from the Santa Ynez Mountains above them, crushing everything in its path. It swept entire homes off their foundations and carried them away in a tumult of mud, boulders and debris -- along with the unsuspecting residents.

Residents lucky enough to be spared reported hearing rumblings just before the onslaught that sounded like an earthquake, but were actually the sound of a deadly, roaring curtain of mud and debris descending upon them powerful enough to propel massive boulders the size of trucks along with it.

A local resident said, "It looked like a World War One battlefield."

Just 2 days after her triumphant speech on Sunday that rallied America to embrace the TimesUp movement to end sexual misconduct and gender inequality in America, Oprah woke up to witness the devastation that spared her own home but forced her neighbors to be airlifted to safely escape a raging gas fire that consumed their property.

Oprah tweeted Tuesday: " What a day! Praying for our community again in Santa Barbara. Woke up to this blazing gas fire ... Helicopters rescuing my neighbors. Looking for missing persons. 13 lives lost."

Ellen Degeneres posted a photo of the flooded 101 highway near her home, with the caption, "This is not a river. This is the 101 Freeway in my neighborhood right now. Montecito needs your love and support."

Rob Lowe added, "Mourning the dead in our little town tonight. Praying for the survivors and preparing for whatever may come."

The hills below which the luxury homes nestled had been stripped of the stabilizing groundcover by the massive brushfires that roared virtually unchecked through the same upscale neighborhood just four weeks ago. The charred and compromised hillsides could not withstand the relentless, pounding rain that turned the rootless soil to slush. They finally eroded into deadly mudslides that struck the community unawares.

Public Information Officer Mike Eliason of the Santa Barbara Fire Department told Xinhua that residents are "overwhelmed by the double tragedy of first the Thomas fire that devastated the area in early December and now this." They are asking themselves why their ordinarily safe and serene neighborhood should now be at such odds with nature.

"It's devastating," said one exhausted resident, her face streaked with dirt. "Happening just after the fire makes it all seem... apocalyptic."

But there is some cause for hope.

Nearly 450 first responders and government officials and 14 rescue choppers flooded into the area to help bring order to the chaos. They coordinated widespread efforts on several fronts to rescue survivors, protect the population from downed electrical lines, put out raging gas fires from ruptured gas lines and clear debris from local roads, and funnel evacuees into the local Red Cross Evacuation Center.

The Coast Guard, called in for their expertise in handling water-related crises, managed to save a family of five trapped in the debris of their ruined home in Carpenteria by an eight-foot sea of sludge that blocked their escape by land. A mother, her newborn baby and other children, were pulled out of the collapsing house via the roof and airlifted to safety.

Another miraculous rescue was successfully carried out by the Santa Barbara County Fire and Rescue Team, with the help of their trusty search dog, a yellow labrador named Reilly, who discovered 14-year old Lauren Canton, nearly buried alive in sludge in the wreckage of her family home. Her father and brother are still missing and are feared to have perished in the deluge.

"I thought I was dead," the mud-soaked teen rasped to a rescue-worker.

Local resident Robert Riskin was not so lucky as he doggedly slogged through the knee-deep sludge and wreckage, desperately searching for his missing mother, whose home was one of those that had been carried away in the dead of night.

A distraught Riskin told GMA news, "I've been searching and calling, but... I just hope it was fast and she's not hurting..."

With 15 confirmed dead, four casualties hospitalized in critical condition, another 21 injured and an estimated two dozen still unaccounted for, the courageous first responders continue to tirelessly comb the wreckage for other survivors. But given the sheer scope of the devastation, hope is waning that a chance remains to find any of the missing residents alive.

"But," Denault told Xinhua, "Santa Barbara is a strong community where people really come together to help in any way they can. We will get through this." Enditem