Santa Barbara city and county leaders said it was thanks to preparation and luck that there weren’t deaths or injuries reported in the big weekend rainstorm.
The entire county had hours of heavy rainfall and high winds, and was under a flash flood warning Sunday before the worst of the storm moved southeast toward Los Angeles County.
The National Weather Service expects on and off showers for the rest of the week, and then dry weather for the weekend.
While there was widespread flooding, downed trees and power lines, this storm didn’t cause major damage in Santa Barbara County. Forecasters said it could have been as damaging as the Jan. 9, 2023, storm, or more so, but the rainfall rates were lower than expected.
In Tuesday reports, county and city government officials were briefed on the storm response.
Santa Barbara City Fire Chief Chris Mailes said collaborative preparation helped reduce storm damage and warned the public of the potential impacts.
He compared it to preparing for a 6.0 earthquake and having a 4.0 earthquake.
“We got an earthquake, but not as big as we anticipated,” he said during the Santa Barbara City Council meeting.
Water rescue swimmers were on duty, response vehicles were pre-positioned around the county, and road closure signs were staged in areas known to flood, ready to be deployed.
Santa Barbara Police Chief Kelly Gordon said only one person had to be rescued out of a vehicle due to rising water, which is far fewer than the December storm that caused citywide flooding.
She had officers stationed around the city in two-person teams to look for storm-related issues.
When officers noticed rising water in Mission Creek near Haley Street, they worked with the Fire Department to evacuate nearby residences strategically, each agency taking an end of the impacted area, she said.
City Public Works Director Cliff Maurer said there were no sanitary sewer overflows during this storm, and El Estero wastewater treatment plant workers were able to handle the over-capacity inflows during the peak of the rainfall.
They diverted excess flows into the collection system for a few hours, he said.
Santa Barbara proclaimed a local emergency on Friday so the airport could do emergency dredging of Los Carneros Creek, which was already flooding the property from earlier storms.
More flooding prompted the airport to close Sunday afternoon and evacuate tenants, said Sara Iza, the airport’s development director.
Cleanup equipment from the city and county fire departments helped clear the roads and get the airport reopened on Monday afternoon, she said.
County Storm Response
Santa Barbara County proclaimed a local emergency on Sunday night, which the Board of Supervisors ratified on Tuesday.
Chris Sneddon of county Public Works said there was no major or long-term damage from the storm. Post-storm clean-up is expected to cost about $5 million, he said.
The emergency proclamation “lets us expedite work to get everything in order,” he said.
Flood Control systems performed as expected, including debris basins, water resources director Walter Rubalcava said. Crews will be clearing out the basins soon, to prepare for the next winter storm.
In a storm report to the Board of Supervisors, Undersheriff Craig Bonner defended the decision to order evacuations for communities near creeks and other waterways, saying, “We heeded the warnings from the National Weather Service.”
The predicted rainfall amounts were likely to have significant risks to life safety, he said.
About 500 properties were in the evacuation zones, including about 80 along Sycamore Creek in the city of Santa Barbara and the rest in unincorporated areas on the South Coast.
“We were prepared for the worst, which fortunately for our communities shifted 100 miles to the south,” Bonner said.
Evacuations were lifted at noon Monday as soon as crews confirmed the areas were safe to repopulate, he said.
Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson questioned why North County schools were closed Monday, which translated to lost instructional time for students and lost wages for working parents who had to stay home.
“It turned out to be a bright shiny day when it would have been schools hours,” he said.
“That decision was not taken lightly,” said Bonner, who added that individual districts made the decision after Sheriff Bill Brown and County Schools Superintendent Susan Salcido talked about the risks of the storm.
“They did the wise thing” and took precautions to make sure students and communities were safe, Bonner said.
“Look at what happened in Los Angeles and Orange counties to understand what we were supposed to receive,” he said.
County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said his department alone had 82 calls in a 24-hour period for power lines down and public assist requests.
Hartwig also thanked the public for taking the threat seriously.
There were several traffic collisions and roadway dangers, including flooding and boulders in the lanes, reported across the county, but no deaths or serious injuries reported as of Tuesday morning.
“We had relatively few rescues, and that just means there were a lot fewer people on the road,” he said.
Fallen trees damaged homes and vehicles, and they blocked roadways during this storm, with some of them were still being cleared as of Tuesday.
