This is being written as much of Montecito is under a Mandatory Evacuation Notice. Tuesday, January 15, at 10 am sharp, Montecito Inn hotel guests were required to check out, as were Four Seasons Biltmore guests. Traffic continued to move along critical roadways for a while, but many of those roads began to be closed […]
In an exquisitely crafted 2006 article about debris flows written for Canyon Voices and specifically about the nature of Rattlesnake Canyon, Karen Telleen Lawton wrote: “Barely a thousand years ago – a second on a geologist’s watch – a rainwater and boulder slurry called a debris flow surged through [Rattlesnake Canyon], strewing its 10 million […]
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First, the bad news: “There’s plenty of material up here waiting to come down,” says Kevin Taylor, division chief of Operations at Montecito Fire Department. He says this as he, I, and Montecito Fire chief Chip Hickman examine the Montecito back country and the dry steep mountains directly above in a four-person, single-rotor helicopter flown […]
It looks like our “New Normal” is to be the evacuation of upwards of 30,000 residents who live below the Thomas Fire boundary from Carpinteria to Goleta, where the now bare soil has been completely upended and exposed to drying winds and constant desiccating sunshine. Every time a hint of precipitation shows up on a […]
Montecito’s cleanup effort is well underway with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers having cleared most of the creeks and debris basins. But a largely unanswerable question surrounds the massive mountain of mud still piled on private property: what to do with the stuff. This is not just an individual homeowner problem; it is a […]
GUEST EDITORIAL by Harry McMullan (Mr. McMullan wrote the following to the Santa Barbara Fire chief, Santa Barbara County sheriff, and all five County supervisors.) My wife and I are residents of Montecito, and we appreciate beyond words the inspiring work of all the firefighters and other first responders who so selflessly and brilliantly saved […]
It has been nearly a month since we were awakened in the middle of the night, without electrical power, to the drumbeat of a pounding rainstorm and the roar of a descending mountain of mud and boulders. As is usual in a natural disaster, there were scenes of personal heroism from unnamed first responders and […]
One of the unexpected gifts of the twin tragedies of the Thomas Fire, the largest recorded wildfire in California’s history, and the subsequent Montecito mudslide that engulfed our small village, has been the outpouring of sympathy, compassion, and support from our neighbors in the City of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Summerland, Goleta, the rest of Santa […]
We only had a little over an hour with Montecito Fire chief Chip Hickman, as he had to escort some of the people who’d lost their homes back to their property, but we made the most of our time. No Montecito firefighters were lost or even hurt throughout the ordeal. There was one death, that […]
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A virtual army of nearly 6,500 firefighters, along with 30-plus helicopters, various other aircraft, fire trucks, bulldozers, and more are, as we write this, working in the back country, mostly out of sight, securing fire lines and control points by a combination of controlled backfires, soaking unburned vegetation, creating breaks where no dry foliage is […]
Montecito is small in size but famous for its natural beauty and relaxed lifestyle. Whether you hike the Montecito trails, stroll Butterfly Beach, order a cup of coffee or a snack – the community character remains the same – unhurried, laid-back, charming, uniquely engaged, small-town friendly service, and locally owned businesses. The shops and businesses […]
After a weekend of Thanksgiving gobbling and gorging, most of us are more interested in waist cuts than tax cuts, but the Senate is about to make its move on tax reform… and Californians are nervous. Voter registration in the State of California runs 44% Democrat versus 29% Republican; California is definitely a dark-blue state, […]
Readers – customers and window shoppers alike – will be sad to learn that Mike and Carole Ridding‘s iconic one-of-a-kind jewelry emporium at 1155 Coast Village Road is closing. Their lease isn’t up until mid-February but, beginning Thursday, November 16, at 10 am, there will be what the Riddings are calling a “multimillion-dollar Going Out […]
The truly “endangered species” in America is neither the salt marsh harvest mouse nor the Channel Island fox. Rather, it is the ominous disappearance of small, locally owned businesses – particularly in retail — and the erosion of their positive impact on the character of local communities. The Retail Meltdown In the last few years, […]
