Flooding, mudslides and wildfire were all on the agenda Tuesday before Santa Barbara County’s aptly-named disaster council, which gathered in a packed board room to talk about preparations made to deal with possible events this winter.
A strong El Niño is looking more and more likely to materialize, bringing potenially heavy rains to the South Coast with it.
The county’s disaster council met to discuss what local agencies are doing to prepare for winter rains that could hammer the region.
Officials also talked about the region’s continued drought, as well as the state of emergency that continues for the Refugio Oil Spill.
Members of the disaster council include Second District County Supervisor Janet Wolf, county CEO Mona Miyasato, and director of emergency management Ryan Rockabrand.
During an emergency, the county plans to use its website and social media presence as tools to get the word out about road closures and flood-control efforts.
A joint information center would also be activated in the event of an emergency to provide a central place for information.
Residents would be able to call 2-1-1, a hotline available now to connect people with health and human services, but could also be activated to help coordinate people with disaster services during an incident.
People would be able to contact someone for help, and the system can be operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week if needed.
The county has also published a document, which can be found here, for residents on how to be prepare their properties for flooding.
Eric Boldt, a warning-coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard, talked about some of the weather expected this winter.
El Niño has actually been present since March, and has been strengthening since then, warming over Pacific waters, he said.
The forecast shows a 95-percent chance the coast will stay in El Niño this winter, and “it’s looking strong at this point,” he said.
As much as rain would be welcomed by local residents, one El Niño winter won’t be enough to end the drought.
In past weather events, a storm system might not reach the northern part of the state, where the majority of the state’s reservoirs are located.
Because the region is about 30 to 40 inches below average rainfall levels — Lake Cachuma is currently at about 16 percent of capacity — one El Niño is not going to end the drought.
“But it could help,” Boldt said.
The recent Hurricane Patricia, which gathered strength off the west coast of Mexico, “should be a wakeup call that when warm temperatures are over the ocean they can really get our storms going,” he said.
Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Eric Peterson was also on hand to speak about wildfire concerns,
It’s been a mild fire season so far, helped by mild wind conditions, he said, and the county has been able to help out with 32 out-of-county mutual-aid missions as a result.
Fire potential is above normal for October and November, but should be back to normal by December.
As for flooding concerns, Jon Frye of the Public Works Department showed a map of the FEMA flood plain, and much of the South Coast is included in that area, including the Santa Barbara Airport.
County crews are out in the creeks clearing out debris basins to prepare for water, and preparing road shoulders and drainage shoulders, but residents should also take part in the efforts.
Property owners should make sure their properties maintain the proper flood insurance and have adequate drainage.
“Winter preparations are a shared responsibility,” Frye said.
Residents can also pick up free sandbags to help protect their homes and properties.
Bags can be picked up at the Santa Barbara Flood Control Shop, 4568 Calle Real, Santa Barbara; the Santa Maria Flood Control Shop, 912 W. Foster Road, Santa Maria; and Santa Barbara County Fire Station 31, 168 W. Highway 246 in Buellton.
With the landslides that occurred earlier this month, Red Cross representatives also said they were working to identify communities that could easily be isolated in a disaster and to train volunteers.
As the meeting wrapped up, Wolf commended the county departments for their planning efforts.
“We are in very good hands,” Wolf said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
