Kimberly Irene Cantin (born April 1966), better known as Kim Cantin, is an American writer and businesswoman. She is a co-founder and president of Cantin Group and the author of Where Yellow Flowers Bloom, A True Story of Hope Through Unimaginable Loss.
Cantin is a survivor of the 2018 Southern California mudflows and lost her family members that includes her husband David Cantin, son, Jack Cantin, in the tragedy. Her daughter, Lauren Cantin, was rescued after being buried under the debris for six hours.
Biography
Cantin was born in April 1966 in Ontario, Canada. While working at Johnson and Johnson, Cantin met David Cantin and married in 1999.The couple had a son, John “Jack” Cantin, and a daughter, Lauren Cantin.
Cantin started her company Cantin Group and was also involved in philanthropic activities with several organizations, including Teens on the Scene, which was co-founded by her son Jack Cantin and Boy Scouts of America, where her husband served as a scoutmaster.
2018 Southern California mudflows
On January 9, 2018, at 3:30 a.m., the heavy rain caused mud and boulders from Santa Ynez Mountain to flow down creeks and valleys into the village of Montecito. The incident is marked as the 2018 Southern California mudflows and killed 23 people in total, including Cantin's 49-year-old husband, David, and 17-year-old son, Jack, along with their family dog, Chester. Initially, Jack Cantin was listed as missing for two years, and then his remains were found in May 2021. Heavily injured, Cantin was rescued and was taken to the hospital. After conducting a two-hour operation, the rescue unit also found her daughter, Lauren Cantin, who was under the debris for six hours.
Cantin started a three-year operation to find her son, Jack Cantin, and a two-year-old girl, Lydia, after she was discharged from the hospital. She deployed several methods in the search, including ground penetrating radar, canine search and rescue dogs, and the expertise of a professor of anthropology and the director of the P.L Walker Bio-archaeology and Forensic Bone Lab at UCSB, Danielle Kurin.
During the COVID-19 2020 lockdown, Cantin started writing her memoir based on her life and experiences of her loss. The memoir was later published as a book named Where Yellow Flowers Bloom, A True Story of Hope Through Unimaginable Loss, in 2023.