Santa Barbara County residents ready to make big evacuation decisions
There are several areas of the Santa Barbara and Ventura County coastlines that are very vulnerable if the next storm has intense or damaging rain which is a big concern after the Thomas Fire in December 2017.
Forecasters say it will be arriving late Thursday night. The timeline has moved the impact to about midnight.
The impact zone could be in a large range where fires have burned recently. That footprint stretches from Ventura through Ojai and up the Gaviota coast and down San Marcos Pass. The degree of peril is still to be determined by the weather.
Experts say this is a terrain driven event, not specifically a wind-driven storm.
Many residents were gathering around the MERRAG (Montecito Emergency Response and Recovery Action Group) information board in the Upper Village of Montecito. It had a specific map of areas that were high risk and in the target zone of possible flooding in a big storm.
“This is serious and I think people will leave,” Tom Schleck with MERRAG. “And if you are there and you can’t get out for seven days your life is alright but you have other issues to deal with like no power, no sewer, whatever.”
The danger zones will not just be near creeks. Sue Zilioto with MERRAG pointed to an emergency map and said, “If we get the rain they are anticipating, the blending of the red and the yellow [risk zones], then all the area will be a mandatory evacuation, not just the red,” said Zilioto.
Long-time Montecito resident and author Fanny Flagg says this storm is being taken seriously by the people she is talking to.
“I feel a measurement of caution I think people are cautious and they are alert and they are paying attention and they will do what they are told,” said Flagg.
Thousands of sandbags are lining key businesses and homes. At the Montecito Inn, the bags are around the driveways that go into underground garages that were buried in mud during the January 9th storm.
K-rail barriers are up to block debris from the freeway. Hillside drainages are loaded with rocks of all sizes and they are not all firmly in place. A strong surge of water will send some of them barreling through populated areas.
One resident who lived in the area for over 40 years, said the dynamics of the incoming storm can change many times like he saw in the 1995 flooding.
“The storm blew in and hit the mountains and did its major dump so there’s all kinds of different scenarios,” Bob Easton said
