Northern Santa Barbara County weathers the storm with no major rain-related problems
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – After two days of oftentimes intense rainfall throughout Northern Santa Barbara County on Wednesday and Thursday, drier conditions arrived on Friday, with the sun and blue skies making a periodic appearance.
"Now we have great weather," said Michael Cash, Guadalupe Police Chief on Friday afternoon. "This is our typical Central Coast weather, and so now we can see ourselves right into Christmas being okay."
Despite two days of significant rain, no major rain-related issues have been reported by Santa Barbara County officials in the north.
"We were very lucky that we did have some periods of intense rain, but our transportation system upheld," said Chris Doolittle, Santa Barbara County Public Works Project Manager. "We had some minor issues with some small rockfalls, some some small slides, some tree limbs in the road, but our maintenance crews were ready to respond and went out there and quickly closed temporarily some roads reopened them when they could and just otherwise dealt with everything as it came, and we were just very lucky that we didn't have a more monumental or higher intensity or prolonged event up here in Santa Maria and Orcutt area."
In Santa Maria, the Public Works Department also said the city made it through the storm this week without and major problems, other the closure of Black Road, which is a regular occurance during heavy rain.
Another common problem seen throughout Santa Maria after a significant rainfall is the creation of potholes on streets and roadways.
On Friday, maintenance crews worked throughout the day temporarily filling in the myriad of potholes that can now be seen and felt by motorists throughout the city.
"With the heavy rainfall comes a lot of potholes occurring in the in the roads," said Santa Maria Public Works Maintenance I Worker Salvador Ruvalcaba. "We in the Public Works Department just go out there, fill the potholes, make sure that everything is kept under control. We're looking forward the next few weeks after the holiday season. We're going to be out here in the streets in full force, being sure to fill in our streets, and make sure they're safe to drive on."
In Guadalupe, some who live near the Santa Maria Riverbed were nervous about this week's storm after severe flooding damaged several homes after the river flooded this past winter.
"Everyone was a little bit on edge when they heard the rain was coming," said Cash. "Then we saw the rain, and everyone was really nervous, but now on the day after the rain is pretty much gone into the ground because it's not saturated, so that has helped. Now it's almost like it was a nice cleansing instead of just being washed away."
Cash credited all the planning and preparation city and county officials have made in Guadalupe this year following this past winter's storm as a big reason why conditions turned out so well this week.
"Our city council was planning ahead, so we made sure we had the proper resources and equipment in place," said Cash. "We did a lot of great cleanup work after the January 9th flooding, and we did some meetings to earn our lessons of things that we needed. We knew this was coming. We were very thankful for the Santa Barbara County Emergency Operations Center. We made sure our drains were clean. We got cars off the street of our particular neighborhoods that we had flooding. We did a lot of preplanning, pre scheduling of shifts and everything. So we felt good going into it as best as we possibly could."
At times on Friday, as the sun poked out occasionally from behind the clouds, it was a welcome sight that should prove helpful for when the next round of rain storms arrive.
"The little bit of sunshine they're going to have this week should be really be helpful to us," said Doolittle. "It will allow some, some grasses to start growing and start, you know, starting to solidify and stabilize the ground, and that's what we're hoping for."
