Berkeley Johnson

Berkeley Johnson remembers sitting on the edge of his seat as Alabama took the NCAA college football championship trophy over Georgia in overtime. Relieved to watch the game in his house in Montecito after returning from the mandatory fire evacuations, he was not eager to evacuate voluntarily for the flood warning. His daughter, however, was taking no chances. In addition to making sure their rabbit was in an easy-to-grab position by the door, she convinced her mother to go to a hotel and moved all of her valuable possessions in her late brother Nick’s room on the second floor.

Thinking his wife and daughter were safely at a hotel, Johnson went to sleep after the game and woke up around three in the morning, put his boots on and went outside. He was cleaning out some leaves near one of the newly remodeled areas of the house when all of the sudden he saw a big orange glow. Tired and confused, he thought the sun was rising at 3 a.m. As he slowly connected that it could not be the sun, the electricity went out and the area fell eerily quiet. He walked around the side of his house and about 300 yards up the hill from him, he saw trees snapping and rocks tumbling and it looked like the entire mountain was melting.

“At that moment, I was just stunned and couldn’t put together what was going on,” said Johnson. “I ran inside and grabbed our dog by the collar just as the back of our house completely caved in.”

Kicking out the windows to get out and miraculously still holding onto the dog, Johnson was able to get up to the midlevel stairwell, which is where he saw his wife and daughter, who had not stayed in a hotel, but simply slept upstairs in Nick’s room.

“When I saw my wife and daughter, sheer panic set in,” said Johnson. “My son was also home from college and, at that moment, it wasn’t just me anymore and I knew I needed to find a solution fast.”

All four of them were able to get up on the roof and huddled near the top of the stone fireplace as Johnson searched for areas around the house that would be easier to maneuver through the fast-moving mud. They watched boulders, cars, propane tanks go by – with each new object bringing a terrifying wave of fear about what would come next.

“For fifteen minutes, which felt like hours, we watched boulders chip away at the house,” said Johnson. “Then, I found a place that I could jump off and went to go visit the neighbors, who were in an area with less high intensity mud flow.”

After helping his daughter, wife and son get to the neighbors’ roof, he went to help the newly arrived firefighters look for other neighbors.

“I was one of the few people that had boots, so I wanted to help,” said Johnson. “Helping out is something that anyone would have done, it is just what you do.”

In slogging through the mud, Johnson saw carnage everywhere. He recognized one house where he didn’t see any movement and knew a single mom lived there with her two sons. A community propane line has burst and a roaring jet of propane was filling the area near her darkened house. They shouted but got no response from the debris filled house.

“That is when we heard a small sound in the dark and, by following it, we were able to locate a little body in a well of debris and the fire fighters were able to dig down and pull it out,” said Johnson.

The firefighters rushed the baby to the hospital where it survived but later, it was found that several of the baby’s family members had perished in the debris flow.

“I was not expecting to be part of that baby’s survival that evening and I can only hope that I can do whatever I can to help him and his remaining family in the future,” said Johnson.

While Johnson’s family is physically safe, their newly remodeled house has been “red-tagged,” which means that it is so destroyed that they cannot go back to it. In fact, Nick’s room was the only room that was left untouched.

“I had to believe that he was watching over his family and the community he loved,” said Johnson. “After he passed away, so many people wanted to help in some way with Go Fund Me campaigns and I needed a breather to think about what to do, so I set up a fund with the Santa Barbara Foundation in his name. Giving back to the community is what he would have wanted and I want to honor his determination, spirit and love of life and that is exactly what I plan to do going forward.”

Johnson hopes that others will follow his example and realize that, in tragedy, giving back to this community, a resilient and strong community, makes Santa Barbara a wonderful place to live. In honor of stories like the Johnson family, and the many other affected community members, the Santa Barbara Foundation set up its Community Disaster Relief Fund, which provides financial assistance to the most effective nonprofit organizations assisting individuals and families displaced in these disasters. Please join us and support your neighbors, friends and family – give today. For more information, please contact Jessica Sanchez, Donor Relations Manager, at jsanchez@sbfoundation.org.