Youth camps in Whittier Fire burn area prepare for incoming storm

Mandatory evacuation orders have been given to many locations around Santa Barbara County, including in the Whittier Fire burn area.

At Camp Whittier, located near Lake Cachuma, the popular camp is now empty.

On Thursday morning, three schools holding camp on the property left after officials felt in was in the best interest of their safety.

“Yesterday we got with some of the teachers and some of the facilitators and decided to go ahead and evacuate them today,” said Camp Whittier director Todd Stepien. ” We’ve been told mandatory evacuations, so we’re leaving.”

The camp is located next to steep terrain that burned in the July fire. It’s created a potentially dangerous situation for life and property.

“The brush is gone, the poison oak that we have up in our hillside is gone and there’s a lot of vegetation that’s gone and it just leaves it prone to possible mudslide, so we’re playing it safe,” Stepien said.

Stepien said execpted rain could cause significant damage to the camp.

“Potential dangers, potential mudslides. The trees that burned during the Whittier Fire in July, those could come down as well, so it’s a good idea to get out and play it safe, so we’re going to leave,” said Stepien.

Stepien lives on the property with his family. He said he will leave by 6 p.m., as will all camp employees, numbering about 15.

Just down Highway 154 is Rancho Alegre. The Boy Scout camp experienced significant damage during the fire. Several structures burned down, essentially shutting down the camp to any use.

Camp Ranger Todd Williams lives on the property and said plans have been in place to prepare the camp for rainy weather.

“We purchased 19 K-rails from the State of California to hopefully keep debris to hit our dining hall and our other structures that survived,” said Williams.

Williams said the rails, each weighing several thousand pounds, are in place just above the camp headquarters to protect it from several potential dangers.

“Boulders, tree limbs, trees, mud and just to allow water flow to go underneath,” said Williams. “The water will be fine, but not have mud go through.”

Williams is hoping he will be able to stay on site through the duration of the storm.

“If the Sheriff’s Department shows up, I’m going to show them what we’ve prepared to do,” said Williams. “I’m prepared to stay. If it’s an ultimatum, I’ll leave.”

Even with potentially dangerous situations that could arise from the rain, Williams added the area could really use the precipitation.

Just across the highway, Lake Cachuma sits around 30 percent capacity.

“We just don’t need an half an inch in five minutes, we don’t that scenario again,” said Williams. “A gradual rain over three days, if we got two inches over three days, that would be great.”

At Camp Whittier, Stepien said he hopes the camp will survive the storm without any incident. The fire and its aftermath has caused business to suffer.

He added a men’s club is scheduled to arrive on Friday for a weekend retreat. Right now, those plans are in limbo.