Direct Relief establishes fund for Montecito mudslide victims
Goleta-based Direct Relief announced Feb. 13 that it has established the 1/9 Victims Fund and committed $300,000 to provide financial assistance for survivors and families of the 21 people who lost their lives in the January Montecito mudslides.
Claimants include next of kin to the victims who died in the mudslides, those who were injured and hospitalized and residents whose properties were damaged in the debris flows. As the administrator of the fund, Direct Relief will also pay the costs associated with managing it.
The fund is expected to get another influx of donations at the “One805 Kick Ash Bash” on Feb. 25. The One805 organization has raised and distributed $1.2 million for the Santa Barbara Police, Montecito Fire, Carpinteria/Summerland Fire, Santa Barbara City and County Fire and Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s departments, and the Santa Barbara Equine Assistance and Evacuation Team.
Applications will be available March 1 and go out to all known claimants. The fund follows a model similar to the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Fund and others that was also used after the Isla Vista shooting in 2014.
To date, Direct Relief has donated $400,000 in equipment to first responders, $10,000 in protective gear as well as vaccines to prevent Hepatitis A and tetanus in the aftermath of the disaster.
• Contact Marissa Nall at mnall@pacbiztimes.com.
