An evening candlelit walk from Lower Manning Park to All Saints-by-the-Sea will take place on Wednesday, to mark last year's fateful January 9. Again rain is in the forecast, but as of Friday it looked to be just a good chance for a third of an inch for the day, rather than anything like the deluge that unleashed the mountainsides in 2018, killing 23 people. Santa Barbara County's emergency center has sent out messages that the heavy rain anticipated for late Saturday does not threaten a debris flow.
The "Raising Our Light" walk for remembrance in Montecito is sponsored by the County of Santa Barbara's mental wellness department, in recognition of the need for "healing, hope, and light" to be shared as a community, said Suzanne Grimmesey, the department spokesperson. The assembly begins at 6 p.m., and a shuttle system has been developed to avoid parking issues. A number of speakers are scheduled at 6:30 p.m., including residents of Little Spanish Town, which suffered many casualties in the debris flow. The evening will end with a bell ceremony and a cup of hot soup at All Saints.
Parking at Manning and the Episcopal church is expected to be nonexistent or expressly limited to people with disability parking privileges. From 5 to 6 p.m., shuttles will leave every 15-20 minutes from: Music Academy, the Chevron on CVR at Butterfly Lane, Montecito Inn, Westmont at La Paz, Cold Spring School, Mt. Carmel, Valley Club, the Zoo, S.B. Junior High, and St. Joseph's in Carpinteria. Metropolitan Transit District will provide Route 14 buses leaving the Transit Center at 5:15, 5:30, and 5:45 p.m. from Santa Barbara. Route 20 buses from Carpinteria will transfer to bus 14 at the Montecito Inn. Returns are scheduled for all routes.