Last week, Rob Lowe gave an angry response to Bella Thorne on Instagram when she complained about Highway 101 being closed:
Bella said later she hadn’t heard of the mudslides. Some found Rob’s response to Bella a little harsh, especially considering his entitled response to the protests against the Immigration ban at LAX. But I think Rob’s response came from a place of deep emotion. However, like Oprah Winfrey, Rob and Ellen DeGeneres are residents of Montecito, California that was destroyed first by wildfire and then by mudslides. The whole state is having trouble processing the loss. Ellen invited Rob on her show yesterday to show footage he’d shot to so the rest of the world could see how bad the situation is.
One day after getting an update on Montecito from county supervisor Das Williams, Ellen DeGeneres invited resident Rob Lowe on her show today to discuss the ongoing relief efforts. “It’s been a really difficult week,” Lowe confessed. “The sadness…I can’t kind of get beyond it.” DeGeneres, who had dinner with Lowe a few days ago, understood. “I think people who live there, we kind of are holding onto each other,” she said, “’cause we really know what it’s like.”
To date, 20 people have been found dead and three people are still missing. “They did find one of the missing alive two days ago,” Lowe said, offering some hope. The actor added that 179 homes have been destroyed and more than 200 homes are damaged. “They’ll have to be scraped. I brought you some film I shot up there, and you’ll see. When they talk about the destroyed [homes], they’re really destroyed. The homes that are still standing will eventually have to be wiped out,” he said. “They don’t really talk about those, because it’s so expensive.”
“People who saw the fires, they woke up, went out to see what was going on, and then were washed away,” he said, describing the confusion. “It was, truly, a perfect storm of bad events.” He then shared footage of himself on the ground, doing his part to help rebuild the community.
You can watch the segment here. Ellen mentioned that some mandatory evacuations could last as late as March. The fires that Rob mentioned in the clip were caused by gas lines that ruptured during the mudslides. Oprah mentioned these as well. Rob was out of town for a meeting but his son Matthew was in Montecito and called Rob at 4 AM to show him the fires and slides. It’s a terrible blow to a community that hadn’t even recovered yet. I’m so sorry for all.
Rob and Ellen tried to end on a positive note. In the excerpt Rob mentioned one missing person has been found alive. Rob also shared trading cards made for the rescue dogs who are helping in the recovery efforts. Ellen shared a story about a couple that tracked their cat’s footprints in the mud and found him alive and Rob talk about an iguana being rescued. Lastly, they mentioned where you can donate to help those affected, which I would like to pass on to you now:
The Red Cross
Ellen’s Montecito Disaster Relief GoFundMe page
And I’ll add a link to Direct Relief and this site that discusses other ways to help.
Photo credit: WENN Photos, Instagram and Getty Images
Anyone still think climate change isn’t real? Who hasn’t been affected by it?
Good for him. Mr Trump ignores all this since CALI dissed him, he is such an a (***).
“Celebrities” should be looking at themselves – our carbon foot print is what is causing these events to happen. Mother earth is now inconveniencing you.
100% agree. We did this to the planet…now the earth is dying and we are crying about it. We could have prevented climate change but us humans are selfish jerks who just didn’t care until it was too late.
*rereads Lowe’s response to Bella*
Ummm, I did not read it as harsh. No name calling, etc. Preachy, maybe, but not harsh.
Also not mentioned is La Casa de Santa Maria that’s in the heart of Montecito. Its a spiritual retreat center and former convent. Its very special and the damage is extensive. The chapel and the dorms were destroyed. If you can find your way to donate, those of us who go would be very grateful. Please pray for La Casa.
http://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/la-casa-de-maria-severely-damaged-in-montecito-mudslide-but-not-gone/686786507
I live a mile away in Santa Barbara and it is just heartbreaking. Everyone is evacuated from Montecito (no water, no power) and searching for housing. Businesses are hurting and setting up gofundme sites. Main highway p, the 101, is still closed and the whole city is suffering because people and goods can’t get here. The schools are trying to relocate so kids can at least have some normalcy-I just donated books for temporary classrooms for the elementary school that are being set up in local city college. Amazon wish list for Montecito unified school district. Montecito had been under mandatory evacuation for a couple weeks because of the fires and people definitely had evacuation fatigue hence the low rate of people who left before the flood. We got .80 inches of rain in 5 minutes, that’s what caused the burned hillsides to go and cause a debris flow that was 10ft high. It will take years for Montecito to be rebuilt and I assume some people will decide not to rebuild after the trauma.
How heartbreaking.
What’s a mudslide? Like wet earth/ground shifts fast? Doesn’t break like an earthquake but “slides”? sorry, don’t want to sound ignorant/crass, I just don’t even know how it translates to spanish.
It’s basically when large pieces of earth or hills give way due to rain. In normal conditions there’s always run off of topsoil but this is more extreme.
This was also a debris flow, so that along with the mud huge rocks and trees and metal from cars demolished cars and houses kept increasing its size and ferocity. At one point it was 15 feet high.
This has been heartbreaking for our community. We will be trying to recover for a long, long time. Thanks for continuing to cover this. Babies and children died, it’s just beyond belief.
I thought his response to Bella was right. The first you do when there’s an unusual traffic jam is try to figure out why. Which is pretty easy now in the Twitter days. Don’t tell me Bella Thorne doesn’t check twitter a hundred times a day.
It’s heartbreaking. People are so loving and helpful to one another in these situations. We have to start preventing this kind of suffering by making new, innovative policy based on climate science.
Of the links shared in the main post, Direct Relief has the best score with Charity Navigator. The highest percentage of your donation goes to assistance. Also, please see the note about Casa Maria above if you are able and motivated to help financially.
I really appreciate CB as a site for having these articles that go beyond just gossip, as much as we all enjoy that part of it.