Debris basins fill in fast where Montecito residents were urged to evacuate

MONTECITO, Calif. - With a tremendous week of weather, some residents stayed in place, and some took off in and around Montecito.

Several debris basins in the Montecito hills are at or near capacity after a powerful prolonged rainfall drenched the area hills.

Some areas received 15 inches..    

Several roads were cut off by small landslides but residents who were told to evacuate and chose to stay said they felt the impact would not cut them off.

Susan Kuczmarsk said, "it felt given all the changes that occurred  here in the last five years that we were  we were in better shape."

Living in the area for years, Joe Connell said "my home is a safe place and from past experience. I haven't had any problems with  heavy rain."

Unsure to stay or go, Ted Swift  chose not to go out in the driving rain.  "I thought it was more dangerous to drive and  to try to get out and where the hell do we go?   We were looking at Milpas with that Spring Street ya know with floods, so we couldn't go downtown. "

 In many areas trees came crashing down where the soaked soil can no long hold its own.

John Watson was cut off.  "A  tree went down there  and then water was impassable at the bridge and water was impassable where it was coming across one of the individual's property."   He stayed behind with his dogs and cats.

Many residents said they were checking on their neighbors throughout the weather event.

Kuczmarsk said, "we all checked in via text and   we felt very confident we were not in danger so we stayed in place. "

Muddy streets are everywhere including at Coast Village road and Olive Mill where Montecito and Santa Barbara meet. Heavy equipment has been called in to start the cleanup.

One of the issues with this overflow is not the debris and rocks that we saw five years ago.   The over flow on to the streets is more of a silt - mud layer left behind.
hat they have to clean up is mostly this kind of material left behind.

 At the Montecito Inn, and Coast and Olive restaurant,  shoveling took place before reopening and welcoming back guests.
The Copus family who own the property came in right behind the city's crew that scraped the street with heavy equipment.

"They were out here really early this morning, 7 o'clock.   They got the  main part of the roadway cleared off and we've been doing the driveway  ourselves, " said Jim Copus who was scooping up mud with his family including his 89-year old dad, and a long time employee.

The Inn was hit hard by the debris flow in 2018 but the owners plan to have a one day recovery now with hotel bookings and restaurant reservations after this system which was not as hard for them as it was elsewhere.

 From the air emergency officials flew the area to assess what has happened and what potential risks are ahead if there's another fully loaded storm.

 But confusion over openings and closing backed up hundreds of cars throughout the day.

Peter Hageman was stuck in his vehicle in a long line of cars.  "It's frustrating because I'm only two blocks away from home and I might have to park and walk."

Even with frequent updates and readysbc.org loading information many people said they were frustrated .