Newfoundland author on surviving California mudslide: ‘It was apocalyptic’
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A prominent Newfoundlander says he made a harrowing escape from the California mudslides that killed at least 17 people and wiped out homes and roads.
“I have been through some experiences in my life, this is right up there with them, I gotta tell you. It was so incredibly harrowing,” said Brian O’Dea, author of “High: Confessions of an International Drug Smuggler.”
O’Dea’s Montecito house outside Santa Barbara was in the path of a pre-dawn flash flood Tuesday that was touched off by heavy rain.
As the rainwater made its way downhill with gathering force, it pried boulders from the ground and picked up trees and other debris that flattened homes, cars and carried at least one body a mile away.