When the final mandatory evacuation order lifted after mudslides struck this coastal hillside neighborhood, Dina Landi returned to her home this week anticipating the damage she might find.
Three weeks earlier, she and her partner had fled to a friend's guesthouse about a mile away, assuming that the voluntary evacuation zone would be safer.
But in the early morning hours of Jan. 9, after they opened the door to check out the rainstorm raging outside, the structure flooded three or four feet deep in seconds, Landi said, forcing the couple to climb onto the guesthouse roof with their 70-pound dog.