California Could Face Costly El Niño Impacts, With No Quick Help Flooding In
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – Santa Barbara County has been a target of costly weather damages from the intense rain storms in recent years to wildland fires – but this year, getting federal help afterwards is going to be harder.
At a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, Public Works Director Chris Sneddon said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still lagging behind on payments for storm damage financial help from the 2023-2024 storms.
The costs totaled $60 million. The reimbursement has been about $4 million. That is just the beginning of the financial issues that will arise if another damaging rain or fire season hits the area.
It is not just Santa Barbara County. Supervisor Joan Hartmann made comments indicating that, because California is a "blue" state, the likelihood of a fast response from FEMA is getting less probable.
She recalls having to go back to Washington D.C. in 2018 to meet directly with legislators to get action that she couldn't get on the phone or through email letters.
Sneddon said, "FEMA would have a higher thresh hold of when they get involved in declaring a disaster and when they do declare they are going to bring less resources to the disaster."
The warming of the Pacific Ocean continues to make tropical rain systems very possible, and intense or damaging rain could be part of that.
At Hendry's Beach Tuesday, with a radar image overhead showing rain, only a smattering of sprinkles came down. Most of the rain went to the south on the Rincon and in Ventura County. Shots of lightning could be seen over the Channel Islands.
Court Flinchbaugh a resident who recalled some past September weather like this said, "everything I have seen shows this very rare. In my lifetime, in Southern California, I have seen it happen five or six times where we have tropical storms come up from Mexico so its pretty unusual. "
His daughter Lucy recalled it because of a significant date in her life. "My husband and I our anniversary, and tomorrow is our four year anniversary and every single year it rains and then it is a hundred degrees and raining on our anniversary!"
A regular surfer, Erik Laurable says the warming water makes all the difference. "I think we are not done. i think it is going to create a combination kind of a domino effect if you will. Things will change and the water temperature, I am out there every day. It hasn't dropped. It is still like 70 it dances between 70 and 72 (degrees)."
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