Eight years after losing his partner in the Montecito debris flows, Lalo Barajas spoke to a crowd of local residents and first responders about the aftermath of the natural disaster and his path to healing.
“I looked at the wreckage of my life, the grief, the shock, the emptiness, and I felt like I was standing in a whole lot of nothing,” Barajas said. “I am standing here today as a survivor.”
Barajas was one of more than 100 people who gathered Friday at Montecito Union School to mark the anniversary of the Montecito debris flows and to honor the 23 people who died in the Jan. 9, 2018, disaster…