tMo
By Tom Modugno of Goleta Surfing
An idyllic view. All was calm and peaceful in Goleta the days following the Montecito mudslide disaster. But the community was still in shock.
The sky was clear and the winds were calm as the details trickled out and we learned how many friends had been impacted by the powerful forces of nature…
And the waves continued to roll in…
But the lineups were not as crowded as usual. It may have been the freeway closure, or everyone was stunned and hooked on the newsfeed.
Or it could have been this. The sudden powerful rain on January 9th flushed out all the creeks and the caca was still floating around.
And this didn’t help. Given that we were in a legit emergency situation, the county needed to get rid of a lot of muck, fast. They were still digging human beings out and that was a top priority, so Goleta Beach and Carpinteria beach were chosen as dump locations for mud.
The natural reaction for people was to freak out about dumping pollution soil into the ocean, but given the extreme situation, and an approval from Heal the Ocean, most folks realized it had to be done. An emergency permit was given to allow 300,000 cubic yards of sediment to be dumped.
But smart folks didn’t swim anywhere near the dump sites…
A few days later, January 16th, another nice swell rolled in and surfers paddled out to greet it.
Read the full story on GoletaSurfing.com
