Santa Barbara Brigade goes to North County to help homeowners
Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade volunteers rip out drywall, insulation, cabinets and more while assisting in the repair of a house in Orcutt on Saturday that was damaged in the January 9 floods.
The Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade, in partnership with Direct Relief and the Santa Barbara Foundation, deployed volunteers and heavy equipment Saturday to Orcutt to help homeowners recover from the recent flooding.
“It was awesome, amazing. We had such a good time. It was a good, meaningful volunteer project. We had about 30 volunteers and eight team leaders,” Abe Powell, CEO and Co-Founder of the Bucket Brigade told the News-Press.
From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, volunteers gathered at the 1100 block of Parkland Drive in Orcutt to remove debris, replace damaged drywall and insulation, dig out silt from homes and help restore yards damaged by flooding.
“It is a very positive thing and an expression of community reaching out to help each other in a time of need. Only the nicest people come out and sacrifice a Saturday morning to help people they don’t know. It self-selects for a nice group of people. The day started with a nice group of people having coffee and donuts and then we had a briefing,” said Mr. Powell. “We had two different locations, both in Orcutt. The first was a single mother with a daughter who is visually impaired. We were restoring the yard so the dog would stay in the yard, and the daughter could move around safely. We restored pathways, fixed fences and got the place back together to move safely around the property; so there was a reasonable expectation to be able to move around safely. The second location included major yard cleanup and removing the interior damage of the home: removing cabinetry in the house to get it off the walls and removing the moist dry wall so the house can dry out.”
Lunch for volunteers was provided by the Bucket Brigade with support from Goleta-based Direct Relief and The Santa Barbara Foundation.
“I think the thing we want people to understand is when we get natural disasters the damage can be so broad and severe that it overwhelms the normal system of resilience and recovery. In this case the people involved did not have flood insurance so they were looking down the barrel of monstrous debt. When neighbors come together and reach out and help people it restores trust and faith in the community. So this kind of work is really important moving forward with the impacts of climate change,” said Mr. Powell.
The Bucket Brigade was formed in 2018 in the aftermath of the debris flows in Montecito to help neighbors in a time of need.
Anyone that needs help clearing their property of mud or debris as a result of the January storms can visit www.sbbucketbrigade.org and click on the button “I Need Help.”
email: kzehnder@newspress.com
