In a documentary released Wednesday, four debris flows survivors who lived along Montecito and San Ysidro creeks talk about the wall of mud, and rumbling sound that shook their homes in the early morning hours of Jan. 9, 2018.
The 22-minute TV Santa Barbara film was produced and directed by freelance journalist Melinda Burns, who has written extensively about the Montecito debris flows, and Hap Freund, former executive director of TVSB.
Lalo Barajas and his partner, Peter Fleurat, saw their vehicles float by the bathroom window, and felt their house lift off its foundation.
“I don’t know how it was I didn’t get killed from the house breaking apart,” Barajas says in the film.
As they were pulled into the rushing mud, Barajas remembers Fleurat yelling to him, “Lalo, grab onto some wood and don’t let go!”
“So I looked over my shoulder, and that’s the last time I saw Peter,” he said.
TVSB will air the documentary on the Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts program, according to Burns, and the video is also available to view online via Vimeo, and the Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts Youtube page.
“We thought it was important to expand the historical record of this tragedy through video, drawing on the vivid accounts of survivors,” Burns said in a statement.
“Their stories take on special urgency as the community girds for the extreme weather events that are sure to come again.”
Click here to read the news release from the filmmakers.
Montecito, January 9, 2018 from Hap Freund on Vimeo.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.