It just occurred to me that I have not seen everysurfer posting lately , I believe he lives in the Santa Barbara area . You still with us dude ?
Hmmmm, good question. Sure hope he’s OK.
I have been texting and PMing him for a few weeks but no response…
I am worried too.
Right now I am looking at his house on google maps and talking with a friend who works at the California Office Of Emergency Svcs., it sounds like he was just (by 1 block) outside of the dangerous zone…
He hasn’t logged in to Swaylocks since 2 days before the slide happened.
I am sure Swaylocks is the last thing on his mind but it does worry me that he hasn’t answered his phone…
Very scary. Have you tried his construction company site? I had gone to it years ago, but did not save it. Not sure if I can find it again.
Yes, very scary…
I have tried his construction site…
Sending him good thoughts…
My friend at CalOES just emailed me a map titled:
“Incomplete Preliminary Damage Inspections 1/15/18”
The map has color-coded markings for “Destroyed, Major, Minor, and Affected”
His neighborhood has no markings and it seems like it was missed by the worst of the slides…
BUT, the map says that inspections are only %80 complete…
Just got off the phone with him. He is good.
Whew
Thanks for tracking him down Chris! Good to hear.
Glad to hear he is OK. I’ve never met him but feel a friendship at some level.
I know how you feel.
My wife calls you-all my “imaginary friends”.
Hi guys,
Thanks for the concern! I’ve been out of touch for a while. Internet was down for a bit, then got busy with everything in the neighborhood.
It’s been a crazy couple of months! The mountains around me all burned, but the fire fighters stopped it right at the edge of town. Lots of nights checking the wind, wearing dustmasks, and making sure the insurance was paid up.
The day before the flood, the wife and I drove the foothills, and hiked our local creek. We had a good idea we would be safe. We were also pretty sure a lot of areas were going to have a rough time.
They called for mandatory evacuations for a lot of the neighborhood. But people wouldn’t leave.
Part of the problem was during the fires, once you left, the authorities wouldn’t let you back home, for weeks! The fire had passed, and almost all the danger was gone, but they didn’t want anybody around in case it flared up again.
So when they said to leave again, everybody said no thanks.
I haven’t seen much of the area, but what I have seen is unreal. Montecito, the land of the beautiful, is now a third world country. No water, power, gas, or paved roads for months. Maybe longer in areas.
My house did fine. We were on a high point between creeks that flooded. No damage for about half a mile in any direction. But past that it got ugly quick.
What was a ten mile drive to work, turned into a seven hour drive, all around the mountain range. So I took the travel trailer, and am writing this from the campground at El Capitan. If you have to evacuate, you might as well do it in style. The timing worked well. The day I got here was the first day of a swell. The bad part is that all of Santa Barbara is surfing here because the freeway is closed to all points south, and the spots in town have high bacteria counts due to the run off and all the flooding/ broken sewer lines.
I should be back home next week. There is a new 6-8 blank waiting for me in the Garage. I’ll be posting again soon.
Glad to hear your doing well , your contribution to this site has been huge! and look forward to your return. Stay safe.