Kaitlyn Domingues had been asleep for less than an hour in her Cal Lutheran dorm room on Nov. 7 when she woke up to a phone notification.
It was a text from a friend, Domingues told the Sun, and her first indication that something was wrong.
“It was at 11:45 [p.m.], so right after it all happened, and I saw a message from a friend saying, ‘Please tell me you’re home, not at Borderline,'” she said.
Though she didn’t go that evening, the college senior had visited the Borderline Bar and Grill on the Wednesday night student events on several occasions during her years studying at the Thousand Oaks university. So when Domingues learned that the venue beloved by friends and classmates was the target of a mass shooting that evening, it turned her world upside down.
A 2015 graduate of St. Joseph High School, Domingues let her family in Orcutt know she was OK immediately, but she said she was most worried for her friends’ safety.
“I have friends that were there; they hid in the bathroom and made it out safely,” she said, adding that she and students at her dorm watched news reports well into the early morning. “No one slept, we were just glued to the TV. It just didn’t seem real, there was no way it could’ve been real.
“It was a nightmare,” she added.
Cal Lutheran was the college of choice for many high school graduates from the Santa Maria Valley, similar to Domingues, who prized the university for its small class sizes and the area for being a close and safe place to study.
For Domingues, Thousand Oaks had a feeling similar to her Central Coast hometown, where people know each other and lend a helping hand. She also noted its place on a list of “safest cities” in the U.S. Moving somewhere like that, she said, made the prospect of leaving home less intimidating.
“I was super scared and paranoid to move away from home like that, but that just made me really feel comfortable,” she said. “So, it’s kind of a huge blow to that.”
Immediately following the attack in which 13 people died, including a Ventura County Sheriff’s Office deputy and the gunman, Cal Lutheran canceled Thursday classes. Classes for Friday, Nov. 9, were canceled as well, so Domingues prepared to head home.
She was delayed, however, when the outbreak of the Woolsey Fire caused authorities to close Highway 101. But Domingues waited, and minutes after it reopened that morning, she merged onto the highway, making it to her family home in Orcutt in the usual two-hour drive.
“I was listening to the radio on the way home and someone said, ‘We have a human disaster and a natural disaster, and it’s all at once. How do we do that?'” she said.
Cal Lutheran freshman Coryn Nodal was delayed in coming home following the shooting because of the wildfire as well, her father Steve Nodal told the Sun.
He said that he and Coryn’s mother didn’t learn of the shooting until the next morning, when they woke up to a text from their daughter saying she was safe.
“She hadn’t gone, but her and her friends had talked of going,” Steve said. “She said, ‘This is a place we’ve been talking about going to,’ that ‘everyone’s talked about how fun it is,’ and they just hadn’t made it over there yet.”
Though she didn’t know anyone injured or killed in the attack directly, Coryn’s roommate did, Steve explained.
“They were all just devastated,” he said.
As soon as his daughter got home, the family sat together to talk and help make sense of the tragedy, Steve explained. He asked his daughter if she’d received any emotional support services, but she hadn’t had the time before leaving for home, he said.
“She was gonna go but then she ended up leaving because of the fires,” he explained. “She seems like she’s doing really well, but I’ve encouraged her to take advantage of anything that’s available if she needs it.”
Local students can seek support in Ventura County when they return, but services are available in Santa Barbara County as well.
Santa Barbara County’s Department of Behavioral Wellness has resources and staff available for locals affected by tragedies and natural disasters like those that hit Thousand Oaks. According to Suzanne Grimmesey, chief quality care and strategy officer with the department, Behavioral Wellness assembled a collaborative Community Wellness Team in the wake of the Thomas Fire and Monetico debris flows. The county coordinates with other agencies, nonprofits, and private sector responders to connect locals with resources and care.
The program also helps the county train staff with the best practices to help during any kind of crisis.
“We have embedded within our department staff trained in crisis and trauma response,” Grimmesey explained. “We have a lot of resources and people available to provide that support.”
The need in Ventura County was so great after the wildfires started that Santa Barbara County dispatched some of its Community Wellness Teams to help out in shelters, debriefings with first responders, and other tasks, Grimmesey said.
But the program is still available to locals who need it, she stressed, especially when signs of wildfire or news of a mass shooting can “trigger” locals emotionally. They can call a 24/7 access phone line or visit readysbc.org.
“We’re out in the community working with individuals, families, businesses, so forth,” she said. “That team is always available to provide the support … they’re trained in crisis response, trauma response, debriefings, grieving, all that type of thing.”
For students like Domingues, who’s studying biology at Cal Lutheran to transfer to a nursing school next year, she didn’t think of calling for support in the days following the shooting. Instead, she was looking to help out as well.
Already a volunteer at the nearby hospital, she went in to support staff overwhelmed with visitors in the aftermath of the shooting. Domingues said there was an “unreal feeling” that was “in the air,” but that the medical professionals and first responders remained focused on their jobs.
“Seeing them all–I mean, they still have to be there, people still need them–it’s just, they’re great people and I hope to be like them one day,” she said. “That’s my goal. Even if I’m half as strong and can do work like they do, I’d be content.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne can be reached at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 15-22, 2018.