Hi, Rob.
How are you?
I'm hanging in there.
How are you?
It's been a really difficult week.
I just-- the sadness, I can't kind of get beyond it.
You know?
Yeah, I know.
We had dinner the other night and it's really--
I think people who live there, we kind of
are holding on to each other, because we really
know what it's like.
So I know you're going to give us--
what are the updated numbers?
Do you know anything that's changed since we talked?
I know that it's still, unfortunately, 20 dead.
They did find one of the missing alive two days ago,
but it's three missing as of today.
I think 179 homes destroyed.
I think 200-plus damaged.
Pretty badly damaged.
Very.
Yeah, they'll have to be scraped.
I mean, I brought you some film that I shot up there
and you'll see, when they talk about destroyed,
they're really destroyed.
But homes that are still standing that
will eventually have to be wiped out,
they don't even really talk about those,
because it's so extensive.
Yeah.
So I know this story, but tell everyone how you learned
and what they said to you before this happened.
Well, we'd all gone through this 200-year fire
event that burned all of our hills
around our little community.
And then they came to evacuate us.
My son Matthew-- we were under voluntary-- so my son
Matthew decided to stay.
I had a meeting out of town.
And at 4 o'clock in the morning I got a FaceTime
from Matthew panicking.
I think I sent it to you guys.
You'll see the FaceTime in a minute.
But fires everywhere, because gas lines were rupturing,
and it was like Armageddon.
Right.
And nobody understood why there were fires again,
because it was raining and we had just put the fires out.
People saw the fires.
They woke up, it was like daylight, couldn't figure out
what was going on.
Went out to see what was going on and then were washed away.
That's how most of them, yeah.
Because people were confused.
It was literally a truly perfect storm of bad events.
It is.
They say mandatory evacuation for us maybe until March,
that we can't get back into the city
because they have to repair everything.
Water, gas, electrical.
And you'll see what we're talking about.
That's a highway, that's a 101.
But let's go to the tape.
We sent a camera crew with Rob, and let's look at what he got.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, Ellen.
I'm here in our neighborhood in Montecito
to give you a sense and your viewers a sense of what
this community is up against now and in the foreseeable future.
Let's go talk to some folks and have a look around.
It's unbelievable, isn't it?
Highway 101.
Can you believe that's a highway?
Look at people's belongings just everywhere.
Look at how high it was.
You would never imagine.
I know.
No.
Never.
That's the thing.
That There's no river right here.
We're probably a mile and a half from the foot of the mountains,
and this still had that power.
This is like Hurricane Katrina, where you just
can see into people's lives.
They had no time to move.
Look at the garage, just filled.
This was a house right here.
There's absolutely nothing left.
Absolutely nothing.
We're great.
You're good?
We're great, thank you.
How are you and your--
Well, we're OK.
But I don't think anybody can be OK after taking a look at this.
I don't even recognize it, do you?
I would have no idea where this is,
and I used to drive this road all the time.
It's 6 inches of moving water can sweep you away?
Isn't that what it is?
Yeah.
6 inches.
Yeah.
12 inches for a car, 24 for a pickup truck.
12 inches of moving water will move a car away.
Yeah.
So you know the Thai family?
Yes.
The father died.
The grandmother, she kept saying,
he's going to be under a big tree.
He's going to be under a big tree.
And I go, why?
And you say that, she goes, he would always have dreams
that he was under a tree.
They found the father.
He was about eight feet under just a clump of giant trees.
My Thai family.
Just spending time with them, getting to know them.
Just the most innocent thankful people,
just to be able to have a little bit of closure.
We were called out by CAL FIRE.
We're with HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response,
and so they're specially trained to support
the first responders.
It is true that it's hard to feel bad around a dog.
It is.
[MUSIC - IMAGINE DRAGONS, "WHATEVER IT TAKES"]
[SINGING] --because I love how it feels
and I'll break the chains.
Whatever it takes.
Well, hopefully you all were able to get a good sense
of the story of Montecito.
It's a beautiful town.
It's a strong town.
And with all of your help out there, we'll be back.
[SINGING] Do what it takes.
There are good stories.
There are stories of hope and things
that we have to focus on.
Yeah.
Well, one of the things--
I know how much you love animals.
I do.
And you saw in the video clip those--
the dogs that are helping up there.
They have their own play cards.
Like baseball trading cards of rescue dogs.
So here's one from Bailey.
Thank you.
You can learn all you want about Bailey.
All right.
And here is Daltry, and Maverick, and Henry, and Robby,
who's my favorite, obviously.
Thank you.
But I love that these little dogs have their own cards.
And we should be able to donate to these amazing rescue dogs
too.
Tell the story about--
I heard this this morning.
First of all, I heard this couple--
and I think we posted it on our Instagram--
found their cat, which is a miracle.
And they followed the footprints in the mud.
And it was covered with mud, just dreadlocks of mud,
but they found their cat alive.
And then you--
Well, the first responders when I was up there--
We obviously look for the people first,
but then there's so many pets that nobody talks about.
One of the big huge tough firemen
had tears in his eyes talking about rescuing an iguana.
And I was like, yeah, iguana are people too.
Yes.
But I mean really, because they're still in houses,
and they need to get out of there.
And the people that were stuck in houses that were not
injured but stuck in houses, they were running out of food,
they were running out of food for their animals.
So people were trying to get to them.
So here's what we're doing.
The best way to help--
What would you say the best--
Well, I would encourage anybody out there
who wants to help these families,
the Red Cross is boots on the ground.
We've come up with a division of the Red Cross
that will go specifically to Montecito.
So RedCrossMontecito.com.
OK.
So we need that.
And we are starting a GoFundMe page
to raise money for the people and animals in Montecito,
and we're going to give to whoever needs it at the time.
So go to our website to find out how you can help.