posted 01-10-2005 07:42 PM         

The town I live in has 5 ways in and out and all are closed due to flooding and mud/rockslides so I am stuck at my shop until they are able to get something open, which appears unlikely for some time now.

The small coastal town of La Conchita, approx. 200 residents, between Ventura and Santa Barbara had a major mudslide at around 1:00 this afternoon, destroying approx. 12-18 homes. They have 1 confirmed dead and a dozen people unaccounted for. The search and rescue crews have found and rescued 9 people so far, and are still searching for victims. The mountain side behind the community that slid is still very unstable, and we are looking at another storm coming in a few hours with 2-3 inches of rain predicted between now and tommorrow, which does not look good for these people.

News just reported that the Governor has been asked to declare Ventura County a disaster area.

Please say a few prayers for Cliff and his family and the rest of the unfortunate people trapped in this disaster as it is still unfolding.

posted 01-10-2005 08:49 PM         

Thanks for posting this.

posted 01-10-2005 11:15 PM         

The good…this Storm has only one more day of soaking So Cal.

The Bad… this Pineapple Express is headed for the Midwest.

Hope all stay safe.

posted 01-10-2005 11:30 PM         

So far 2 confirmed deaths in La Conchita. They are talking now that highway 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara might be closed for 3-4 days while the rescue efforts are ongoing. Last count the news said 9 remained missing.

Piru, where Cliff lives, was evacuated because Santa Felicia dam, at lake Piru is filled to capacity, the streams out of the lake are at flood level, and the dam is ready to go over the spillway at the top.

To give you some idea of the weather pattern here, we have literally gone from drought to flood stages in a week. Our rainfall is at 450-600 percent more than normal for the season, with 5 more months to go. We had 12 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. River behind my house jumped the banks this morning and is getting close to several of the homes down there (100 foot dropoff from the back of my yard to the riverbed).

Cathi is fine, releived that I made it home safely. School was canceled this morning due to the road conditions, so all she had to do all day was baby sit the dog.

Guess I made it home just in time, they just stopped all road escorts up the grade just now according to the radio. Thanks for all the concern, but keep praying for Cliff and his family, I am sure they and their home will be safe, but it sure can't hurt to say a prayer for them.

posted 01-11-2005 08:03 AM         

Our thoughts and prayer go out to you, Cliff and your families.

posted 01-11-2005 11:06 AM         

We are grateful that only 2 rooms flooded in our house. Water came in thru the sliding glass doors..

If the river comes up more, and you need to move stuff, call me I have a truck and a couple of strong guys available... 231-8333

posted 01-11-2005 03:46 PM         

We don't have many birds anymore. What we do have are in buildings.

Im grateful we only had a few problems. So many in Ventura county are suffering... We are the lucky ones. Has anyone heard from Cliff or Gina?

The east end of Ojai is thrashed. A lot of ranches in our neighborhood look more like raging rivers than orange orchards. Mature orange trees are just gone... My avocado orchard is very soaked, if they are going to have a problem we will know in a few weeks.

Otherwise we'll have a great guacamole party in March

posted 01-11-2005 04:33 PM         

Sorry about the orchards. One of the welders that works for me has a ranch up by Thomas Aquinas and said they got hit pretty hard also, and are without power and phone.

Traffic is still a nightmare, took my neighbor almost 2 hours to get thru Casitas Springs this morning, I didn't even try. Hopefully when I go to work in the morning it's better (although at 4:30 in the morning there isn't much traffic anyway).

posted 01-11-2005 05:13 PM         

We got caught in Fillmore when Highway 126 decided to be overcome by rivers (Santa Clara & Hopper Creek) and the mudslides. There are only 2 ways into Piru and both sides were overcome with slides and flooding so we couldn't get in either way. Fortunately, we have many friends in Fillmore and did not have to scramble for a place to stay. We were very concerned but we had our neighbors checking on our house to make sure everything was okay. We came out of it without a scratch.

Please keep all those that are suffering in your thoughts and prayers! There are now 4 confirmed deaths in La Conchita. The footage that the camera got of the mountain coming down on the homes is just amazing - its all dirt but it looked like water the way it came down.

We had a friend in Fillmore that knows a lot of people, so he helped us get a fire department escort back into Piru last night. It was pretty hairy crossing where the creek was coming over the road - about 3 feet of muddy water, lots of debris, what was left of giant eucalyptus trees, but the Durango went through it like a charm. We did have to leave our Dakota in Fillmore, so I am hoping to be able to go and get it tomorrow (maybe). The roads are really bad but they are working on them the best they can.

The upside is we are home - the downside... we can't leave Piru. We don't really care though, now we can help our neighbors, and take care of our home - so we are happy.

The evacuation was voluntary and since our streets had been draining VERY well, we decided to just pack the truck with stuff and leave when they made it mandatory.

What is really GREAT - we are usually the first to lose power during any problem, and we have had only 1 outage this whole time - and it was while we were sleeping

Thank you again for all your thoughts and thanks Jim for the call!

Please remember and pray for all those that have been so unfortunate during this storm... there are many that have been and will be suffering losses.

posted 01-11-2005 05:55 PM         

Christine and I took a vacation and were out of the country for the past ten days. We returned home to San Diego last night to find standing water throughout our house from a leaking skylight. Apparently while we were gone, San Diego got a little rain! We are lucky because carpeting can be replaced and that is all we lost. Luckily, the canyon behind the house is still secure, although there was a very large tree two houses down that could not take the soaking and it is now at the bottom of the canyon.

posted 01-11-2005 08:19 PM         

They are using aerial photographs to determine where to concentrate their efforts. They said it knocked the houses off of their foundations, and they all tumbled together down the street. All of the work is being done almost exclusively by hand, and are using neighbors to identify wall colors in the house interiors to try to determine which house they are actually uncovering because of they way they all tumbulled down the street.

600 plus workers onsite from all over the state. Still missing is a father and his 3 children, along with at least 9 other people. They are still holding out hope of finding survivors, and have picked up some faint noises from the rubble but have not yet been able to determine the exact source but said that as they keep digging down they discover pockets large enough to hold people. As long as they keep finding these areas, they will keep treating this as a rescue effort, not a recovery effort.

The rescue workers were blessed last night when the anticipated 3-5 inches of rain anticipated overnight stayed just to the North of us so they were able to resume rescue efforts after a brief 2 hour shower stopped. If they do get more rain they are worried that liquifaction will bring more of the slide area down.

Please continue to hold the safety of the rescue personal and those that are missing in your prayers.

Jim

posted 01-11-2005 10:14 PM         

quote:

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Originally posted by CTProwler:
Wish the people in the U.S. would be as worried about the people in California as they are about the people in southeast Asia (tsunami) Cliff and others Glad your all OK!!

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Amen.