Engineers work to update Debris Flow Risk Map

The same engineers who worked on the Debris Flow Risk Map last fall and the FEMA interactive Recovery Map are working on a new risk map.

Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor said Atkin’s Engineering is working on the map. Engineers will analyze the regrowth going on through the month of August before releasing the map.

“Over the last year with the basins, the channel, and the ring nets we expect that risk to be much less,” said Taylor.

The deadly Montecito debris flow, that killed 23 people, happened when .54 inches of rain fell in five minutes at 3:30 a.m. on January 9, 2018.

Chief Taylor said there was no vegetation left to hold the Thomas Fire burn scar in place.

‘When you have steep slopes after wildfires there is a waxy residue on top of the surface and the water doesn’t stick and there is a lot of debris for mobilization, which of course is what we experienced in the debris flow, but as we get years from the burn that becomes less and less.”

The county made a commitment to the Montecito community to update a Debris Flow Risk Map every year.

Montecito homeowner Sam Pignato is an engineer who wonders how they will factor in new ring nets paid for by the community.

“I just don’t really know if they really can be totally exact, but it certainly does help to see some new maps because nature is really something,” said Pignato.

Engineers plan to release the updated map in late October.

If the National Weather Service, based in Oxnard, forecasts another short duration rainfall the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management will issue warnings and orders based on the map.

OEM Interim Director Matt Pontes said residents won’t hear the word voluntary.

“We haven’t been using the mandatory / voluntary evacuation terminology for some time now. We try to be consistent with other jurisdictions.”

He said orders will be made in advance to give people time to evacuate their families and animals.

The county will host community meetings in Carpinteria, Montecito and the Coast Village Road business district to explain the map.

They also plan to visit homeowners in at risk areas in early November.

For more information visit, https://www.readysbc.org