Jade Martinez-Pogue, Noozhawk Staff Writer
“Heal the Ocean leaders worked over the weekend to clear an abandoned homeless camp at a Montecito beach before unusually high tides hit on Monday morning.
The camp had formed on the beach at the base of the cliff below the Santa Barbara Cemetery, filling the area with trash, bicycle parts, car batteries, and flooded tents, according to Hillary Hauser, executive director of Heal the Ocean.
The organization received a call about the camp from a concerned citizen on Thursday, Hauser said, and spent Friday trying to figure out what legal action could be taken.
Heal the Ocean later learned that a king tide, which consists of tide levels about a foot or two higher than average, would be hitting on Monday, along with surf warnings coming on Monday and Tuesday.
Harry Rabin, Heal the Ocean advisory board member, alerted Hauser on Saturday knowing that something must be done to remove the camp before the massive tides swept all the abandoned items into the sea, Hauser said.
“Being Saturday, it was difficult, if not impossible, to reach any official permission to clear out the wreckage,” she added.
Rabin got to work making calls to the county Fire Department and Sheriff's Office seeking approval to clear the site, while Hauser spent the day trying to find a cleaning crew or junk hauler that could help remove the camp. . .”