City of Santa Barbara ends emergency declaration

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.-The relentless storm system that came through Santa Barbara on the anniversary of the deadly Montecito mudslide led to official emergency declarations along the coast.

More than five inches fell on the city of Santa Barbara in a couple of days and even more fell in the mountains.

The overflowing creeks flooded the freeway just south of the city and closed a number of other roads.

The emergency declaration helped local departments prepare and respond.

Mayor Randy Rowse said the city will continue to try to recover costs.

"When we do an emergency declaration, like we did for the weather issue, we open up the Emergency Operation Center, we made that declaration so it is manned, staffed" said Rowse, "We haven't manned it for awhile but we officially ended the emergency declaration today."

Councilmember Eric Friedman said the city is still responding without being in the emergency.

"There is no more flooding, so we're are not in the emergency in that sense of the word."

He said the Small Business Administration is also helping.

"We are still responding to it, we are still accessing damage and we are still trying to get the word out to the public; if your business or your home was damaged where you can go to get resources," said Friedman.

They want to remind people that there is still a FEMA / State Disaster Recovery Center set up at Direct Relief located at 6100 Wallace Becknell Rd. near Hollister Road in Goleta. It is currently open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

It was rather slow on Tuesday evening.

If someone needs help or has questions they will find all kinds of resources in one place including FEMA Red Cross, and Behavioral Wellness staff.

Workers did not know when the center would close.