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In the early hours of Tuesday morning in Montecito, a quiet, affluent town near Santa Barbara, California, neighbors woke up to a horrifying scene: Mud rushing down the mountains into their community, down the streets, and through many homes.

The sticky, dark mud is 10 feet deep in some places, and boulders have displaced cars and houses.  At least 17 people are dead as a result of the mudslides, and rescue workers are still frantically searching for dozens of people who remain missing. 

It was just weeks ago that Montecito and the surrounding area went through another harrowing natural disaster — a massive wildfire burned more than 250,000 acres. The fires created a landscape ripe for floods and mudslides, and the mud came much more quickly than many residents expected. 

"My wife woke up to my screaming to get up and the first instinct was to push furniture against all the glass and the doors to keep them from shattering and everything coming in," says Ben Hyatt, a Montecito resident who had to be rescued.

How will this community begin to recover? Here, The Takeaway speaks with Hyatt along with Anthony Ranii, superintendent for the Montecito Union School District. 

This segment is hosted by Todd Zwillich