There will be more bad news, unfortunately. On Tuesday rain fell at a rate of more than an inch a minute around 3:45 a.m. People were asleep in their beds and had only minutes to run for it Clad only in night clothes, they had no IDs. Rescuers collected them all and family will be notified when there is positive identification by the coroner's office. Rebecca Riskin, a high profile realtor, was a casualty. Rebecca was a long time client of my sister's Ojai Day Spa for two decades. She is just devastated.
Many homes are damaged or entirely demolished. Bodies have been found in deep mud. Scenes of destruction are simply jaw dropping. Cars washed down the roads are mangled metal, barely recognizable. You can only imagine the terror of people who were swept away in the debris which was moving at 35MPH, faster than any one can run. People are being rescued from trees and their roof tops. While the mud debris field has been completely examined, rescuers and dogs are now beginning to examine homes for survivors/victims.
Pray for everyone, especially the rescue team. They are in peril now as they enter unstable structures.
To be clear, residents received evacuation warnings, but were not under mandatory evacuation orders. That is why so many people were caught off guard after the torrential rainfall.
Pray, pray, pray.
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