 Coming up, what happens when your local first responders need help? It's such a rare request. We're going behind the scenes to give you an inside look at how law enforcement mutual aid works and why it's so important. Plus... It had to have been terrifying for those people in those homes that night. We'll hear firsthand what it was like the night of the deadly mudslides in Montecito. And... That mouth still was important. But check in on the progress being made for the thousands of homeowners who lost everything in the October wildfires. That's all coming up next on this edition of Inside Look. Thanks for joining us. I'm Bryan May in the Cal OES Newsroom. It happened in a matter of minutes. Hillside's already burned by the Thomas fire were turned into torrents of mud and debris after Mother Nature dumped a half inch of rain in just five minutes in the town of Montecito. It swept virtually everything in its path including two CHP officers in their patrol vehicle responding to a call for help. It was one of the many harrowing stories we have heard from the countless people at the mercy of Mother Nature. Here's Sean Boyd with the behind the scenes story of the law enforcement mutual aid mission that started with the creek that just couldn't be contained. I'm here in Montecito at the Cold Spring Trailhead. It's just off East Mountain Drive and this is where one of the two mudslides began picking up energy as it rushed down the mountain heading that way. The flash flood and ensuing mudslide are estimated to have traveled at 25-30 miles per hour down Montecito Creek. It's now exponentially larger. It carried with it debris and boulders the size of tiny houses. This boulder wasn't here before the debris flows. The massive mud flows devastated anything in their path. This is just some of what they left behind. And what homes they didn't demolish are now sitting ducks for looters. Cal OES immediately coordinated the deployment of 200 plus law enforcement mutual aid or Lima from all over Southern and Central California. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department was already running on fumes because of the Thomas fire and needed help badly. So it's been a significant strain on the Sheriff's Department and their personnel. I mean they've been working nonstop and they really didn't take a break between the two incidents. One surprise deployment was the Los Angeles Police Department. Yeah, it tells you the enormity of it because it's such a rare request. Their mission now, like most Lima, is to relieve local officers that need the rest, secure the area and escort people into and out of the disaster zones. That's truly a community in need and I understand the local agency was so impacted in the sense they were working 24 hours, they had no opportunity to rest. So this is a good opportunity for us to assist them. Much of the coordination happens here at the command post at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Every 12 hours, a new team checks in, receives their equipment, radios, cars and assignments. We're leaving the crew. We've just spent the last 12 to 15 hours on duty. It went well, no problem, no issues and everybody's through the preaching of the police so it was nice. Looks like you have some vegetarian pasta and they can also fuel up with hot food and then some. We put them up in a hotel so that they can sleep between their shifts. The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department knows how to treat their Lima guests. So we give them a comfortable place to sleep at night, a toothbrush if they need it, deodorant, a clean t-shirt. We've got all of those supplies here that's really allowed us to provide the level of customer service that we like to provide here in Santa Barbara to our community. A hundred sign-on in the morning, another 70 check-in at night. It's going to be another long assignment. Tonight, Lieutenant Rudy Lopez and Sergeant Joe Clay of the LAPD team up to patrol a portion of Montecito. I generally would come up and check up here because it's kind of out of the way, off the beaten path. Assisting other officers in a foot patrol of properties is part of the mission. They're on the lookout for cars and people who don't belong here, possibly looters. There are homes full of valuables whose owners are still evacuated or away. Stuff like this show, is that what we're here to protect because you don't know the value of these two pieces. You got this piece of art right here, you don't know how much that's worth. Same goes for tapestries and more practical property like washers and dryers. But an incident outside this house reminds everyone dangers still exist and each step you take has the potential for injury. Yeah guys, I need some more light over here. I'm glad you're all having a good time. Thankfully no one was hurt this time, only her pride. So it's back in the car to continue a long night of keeping their assigned section of Montecito safe. Their Lima mission is just as rare as the disaster itself. Most last 24 to 48 hours. Lima missions almost never last a month or more like this one. The state's master mutual aid plan is designed for disasters like this one to allow Lima requests to reach around California to spread it out so as to not strain water to the parties. For us to be able to reach out and take a little bit from several different agencies we're able to again you know make this mission successful. If you'd like to learn more about how Lima works in conjunction with the disaster and how important and unique California's system is go to caloes.ca.gov or visit our newsroom at oesnews.com and search Lima. Sean's now back from his 10-day deployment in Santa Barbara. And Sean I want to ask you what struck you the most during your time down there? Well besides all of the destruction it was incredible to see the amount of mud everywhere the rocks the boulders the size of small houses it really was incredible. The other thing that I really noticed was how many people there were out there working to get this community back into some kind of livable shape everywhere you turn their first responders law enforcement they were everywhere really. But there was one thing that sticks out my mind a quick story here for you. As I was sitting in the truck that had the Cal OES logos on it on the street in front of this woman's house I was looking at some directions and the next thing I know there's there's a woman standing at my window so I rolled down the window and you could tell she had been crying her eyes were puffy. And she proceeded to tell me how grateful she was that Cal OES was out there and that all of the first responders touched her in such a way that it gave her hope that she really wanted to be able to thank everybody and give everybody a hug. But she wanted me to convey that to everybody that she and everybody else out there are just so grateful for all of the work that's being done out there. So I wanted to give her a hug but she had to get back in the house and it really was a feel good story so I wanted to make sure everybody knew that. What a great story Sean yeah thank you. You know for those who stayed behind in Montecito the sounds of boulders and rocks and trees and in some cases entire houses being moved in the debris flow in the mudsides something they'll never forget with more on what it was like the night of the Montecito mudslides here's Jonathan Goodell. This is what people imagine in Santa Barbara County beautiful beaches pristine water and coastal living and this is what it looks like today. Once a secluded and lush stretch of serenity all of Mill Road is nearly unrecognizable. Large boulders mud and debris now consume parts of this canyon. We've got a lot of the heavy equipment that are still working. This area in particular was hard hit. There were three houses that were right behind me that are no longer there. That first couple hours of the mud flow and debris it will basically wipe the houses clean off their foundation and carry them downstream and we're posited several different locations on the way to the 101 freeway. They were just wiped clean. Mike Eliason a 30-year veteran of the Santa Barbara County fire department was on scene within minutes of mud and debris flows in Montecito. I saw a lot of hard work by a lot of individuals. They they worked together and it didn't matter what color the uniform they had on whether they were law, fire, construction, nurse or just an innocent bystander. A lot of people came together and really worked hard to try and save a lot of individuals. Thousands of residents evacuated safely. Others were rescued. However 21 fatalities have been confirmed with search and rescue efforts still ongoing to locate the remaining two missing persons. It had to have been terrifying for those people in those homes that night to hear these boulders getting closer and closer and hearing all those trees snapping in as they're getting closer. I can't imagine the fear in those people as they knew what was coming and they had no escape. Montecito is a small town just minutes from the beach but seemingly miles from the busy Southern California lifestyle. It has dealt with two disasters in a span of a month. First the Thomas fire, now the mudslides. This community has gone through a lot in just this short amount of time and over the span of at least the last 30 years that I've been affiliated working with this community. So they're a strong group. They've come together and they're really going to get through this as a group of one. First responders themselves were directly affected. Some searching for their friends and neighbors. Mike Eliason was one of those. A family friend was clinging to his 14-year-old son as mud and debris engulfed their home. The father never made it out safely. They were holding on as long as they could and they were separated and the son was swept away and he was carried a half a mile down to the 101 freeway and deposited in the pool that became 101 freeway. He was rescued by an off-duty law enforcement officer and taken to Cottage Hospital where he still remains in critical condition. Unfortunately his father did not make it. As mud and debris flows roared down the canyon and overwhelmed creeks in the early morning hours, darkness made the task of finding trapped residents even more difficult for first responders. There's swimming pools I could step into. There's a manhole covers that I could fall into. There's live wires that are down. So you really had to pause for a second and assess the gravity of this situation but then they realized they had to press on. They had to go find that those people knew people that lived in this little area so they were searching for their friends and it took on a very personal rescue and a very personal call for a lot of these people because this town is small. Everybody knows everybody. The force of the mud and debris flows pushed some homes more than a half mile to Highway 101. In Montecito here at the corner of Hot Springs Road and Olive Mill Road, you can see just how high the mud rose on these properties and left complete and utter destruction around from big boulders and tree limbs to street signs. 130 homes were destroyed and 300 more were damaged. They knew that there were homes at one time were standing and they had to figure that they were swept a certain direction so they just started walking and looking and one of the firefighters found a man half in the mud and were able to pull him out with his engineer and bring him to safety. Significant progress has been made as cleanup efforts continue in Santa Barbara County. They're making great progress. They're working in some cases 24 hours a day. This area has been cleared a lot of debris. You've got the heavy equipment trying to clear these boulders. The Little Creek, Montecito Creek that's just next to us, that was filled with those boulders and those heavy excavators and we're clearing that. So now we have at least a channel for that water to run up if we get any future rains. There is still a lot of work to be done. Utilities, gas, water still need to be turned on. This close-knit community has changed forever. Though progress has been made, the recovery process will be long term. More than 100 million tons of fire-related debris has now been removed in Lake, Mendocino, Napa, and Sonoma counties. You are looking at Coffee Park, one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in the town of Santa Rosa. It's quite a different picture than the ones we brought you just a few months ago. Officials are happy to report that the unprecedented debris removal operation in that neighborhood is now complete. Lake County, well another hopeful sign of progress, now 100% complete with debris removal. These milestones would not be possible without the coordinated efforts of local, state, and federal agencies all working together to help these communities recover. There's more work to be done, but all of this is welcomed progress for those who lost everything in last year's wildfires. We're very happy that the milestone was met and that we're ready to, you know, we're continuing to move forward, but I'm happy to see that the re-operation is in the rearview mirror, at least in Coffee Park. For more information about wildfire recovery efforts, you can visit wildfirerecovery.org. There's links to more information about programs available and helpful resources for each of the impacted counties. For all of us at Cal OES, I'm Brian May. Thanks for watching. Visit our online newsroom at oesnews.com to learn more about this program and get the latest news and information from our team. Don't miss our next video on your Facebook timeline, like our page, and you'll get the latest posts as they happen. If you're an Instagram user, you can see the latest snapshots by following our Cal OES Instagram account. 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