$90-million in costs so far in Santa Barbara County from this months storm events
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - In just a couple of weeks, the totals from this months storm events have soared and the first round of figures were brought to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting.
Public Works Director Scott McGolpin said, "we have about $90-million dollars worth of damage we believe to our infrastructure in the county of Santa Barbara."
It's created an expensive mound of work, not just to clean out debris basins, but also, "on the transportation we have been focusing on getting all the roads open. Two lanes in each direction but more importantly getting emergency access and resident access."
The damage is countywide, in well traveled areas.
"Some of the major roads that were impacted by this event were Union Valley Parkway, Refugio Road, Gibraltar Road, East Mountain Road, Tepesquet Canyon, Jalama Road and Miguelito Canyon," said McGolpin.
Areas hit hard and that absorbed a full load of debris were the foothill basins
One that's been cleaned out in the last two weeks was full of boulders and gushing over the top with water on Jan. 10.
It certainly has helped that we have had sunny days.to allow public works crews to dig in and clear out the front country basins and get them set for the next storms.
North County residents in Guadalupe, Orcutt and other hard hit areas were credited with their all-in efforts but also encouraged to accept help from the government.
Santa Barbara County Supervisor Bob Nelson said, "a lot of us in the North county that have suffered damage. We are used to being resilient people and taking care of things ourselves but I want to encourage people to make sure they are file the forms necessary to reimbursement and help."
Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said, "the mayor was out there in waist deep water with the Police Chief in the middle of the night moving folks out of their yellow tagged homes and that's exactly right they are so used to doing things themselves and taking care of things themselves, we had to prod them to ask for help."
Emergency advice is still available on many levels.
Emergency Services Director Kelly Hubbard said for those looking for either insurance help or government help she would, "encourage them to register and pursue their insurance options but also register with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) but also come to the local assistance center, disaster recovery center.
