After the Montecito mudslides, a search for belongings and two children

Hope can be plucked from a heap of dirt with gentle hands.

A gold-rimmed teacup with a chip in its pedestal. A pink vest knitted for a niece. A canvas book bag carrying a bracelet and a headband.

Once as brown as the angry earth that barreled down the hillsides of Montecito, hundreds of possessions…