In the early morning of Jan. 9, 2018, seven homes were destroyed and two people died on Randall Road in Montecito as a raging torrent of mud and boulders jumped the banks of San Ysidro Creek.
It was one of the deadliest places to be in Montecito that day. A catastrophic debris flow that was triggered by extreme rainfall on the burned mountainside descended onto the sleeping community below, damaging more than 200 homes and killing 23 people. Two of the victims lived just below Randall on East Valley Road and Glen Oaks Drive.
Now, the county is designing a debris basin on eight acres at the intersection of Randall and East Valley – effectively, an enormous dirt bowl to help trap the boulders and uprooted trees that can surge over the banks of San Ysidro Creek during the worst storms. It will be 10 times the size of the existing debris basin, which is located higher on the creek, near Park Lane.