Camarillo Springs barrier project helps protect homes from mud flows

After a couple weeks of come and go storms, residents in the Camarillo Springs neighborhood are grateful to not be dealing with any major problems.

“We hope that we don’t get a heavy downpour and that things continue the way they are, but we love the rain as long as it is a nice slow steady rain,” said Joan Kellet of Camarillo Springs.

“We just love the rain and we enjoy being here. We just want it to rain some more but not too much that the mountain comes down,” said Marcia Sandifer of Camarillo Springs.

This retirement community is all to familiar with the damage a heavy downpour can cause. Since the Springs Fire charred this hillside in May of 2013, this community has seen several mudslides, and lost nearly a dozen homes.

To prevent another disaster from happening, the community has worked with the city and spent more than two-million dollars installing a network of barriers along the Conejo Mountain, carving out concrete drainage paths, and planting trees.

“Things are doing better they have done a lot of work up there and it looks great to us,” said Sandifer.

“I think it is wonderful because we haven’t had any mud come down. Every time it rains we look out and we thank God that we don’t have any mud coming down,” said Kellet.

While things look good so far, Camarillo Springs community members are quick to point out that the storms we have had the last couple weeks provided a nice steady light to moderate rain, and nothing like the heavy downpours that brought down the hillside in 2014.