that Santa Barbara County officials had failed to maintain the flood control system and build bigger debris basins that could have lessened the mudslide’s destruction.
It takes an emotional toll. Ebrahim recalled how hours after the mudslide struck, she trekked up to Potato Canyon Road and found her horses, Almond Joy and Charlie, stuck in the mud, their legs completely covered and bruised by the debris. With sunlight fading, she agonized as she was forced to leave them for the night, with no food or water. It wasn’t until the next morning, with the help of another neighbor, was she able to dig them out.
Longtime resident Jim Wolfe’s home and property sits along Birch Creek and across the county-maintained channel. Given his precarious spot, the county placed K-rails along his property to protect it from runoff. “The county’s been great. They did a lot of preventive stuff,” Wolfe said. “This time it was just crazy.”Over the ridge, in Forest Falls, where the El Dorado fire burned to the edge of town, residents are keenly familiar with the unpredictability of nature’s blows.
He tried to run back to his bedroom and found that his den was gone. He and his girlfriend managed to escape and stayed with a neighbor; but his home for the last 15 years, which he hand-built with his father, was destroyed.