Update: Santa Barbara County ended the evacuation orders at 9:30 a.m. Thursday.

Santa Barbara County issued an evacuation order Wednesday afternoon affecting South Coast communities below recent burn areas due to the risk of severe flooding and mud and debris flows.

The order went into effect immediately after being announced around 2:30 p.m., and affects the Alisal Fire burn scar (Refugio Canyon and Gaviota Coast); the Cave Fire burn scar (Highway 154 corridor on the Santa Barbara side) and the Thomas Fire burn scar (Montecito, Summerland and the Carpinteria Valley).

Properties under the evacuation order appear in red on the storm impact map here.

Montecito is the most populated area affected by the evacuation order, which comes almost five years to the day after the post-fire debris flows that killed 23 people, injured dozens of others, and damaged hundreds of homes.

A Flash Flood Watch went into effect for southwestern California Wednesday afternoon into Thursday, and the National Weather Service also issued storm-related High Wind and High Surf warnings and advisories for Santa Barbara County.

At 9:25 p.m., a new Flood Advisory was issued, warning of moderate to heavy rainfall, with rainfall rates of between 0.33 and 0.5 inches per hour.

The advisory, in effect until 12:30 a.m. Thursday, warned that “the rain will likely trigger shallow mud and debris flow, minor rock falls, and flooding capable of localized damage especially in steep terrain in and near burn scars.”

County leaders decided to order mandatory evacuations due to the expected intensity of this storm and the soil saturation from recent rainfall, Sheriff Bill Brown said.

Sheriff’s deputies and Search & Rescue Team members were going door to door to notify people about evacuation orders, and people may also hear messaging from loudspeakers, receive emergency alerts, or some combination of those measures.

The county sent out a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) to residents around 4:30 p.m. notifying people of the evacuation orders.

The most intense rain is expected from midnight to 3 a.m. Thursday, Brown said, with moderate to heavy rainfall from 10 p.m. Wednesday until 5 a.m. Thursday.

The county is activating a Type 3 Incident Management Team for storm response Wednesday night, and will be pre-positioning firefighters, paramedics, heavy equipment operators and rescue teams throughout the county, with a focus on the South Coast.

“We’re prepared for whatever happens,” County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said. “We hope these resources are not needed, but we’ll be here if you need us.”

This storm will intensify overnight, and given Montecito’s history of debris flows, officials determined evacuations were necessary, said Montecito Fire Protection District Chief Kevin Taylor.

“This storm setup looks very similar to what occurred in our community in 1969, five years following the 1964 Coyote Fire,” Taylor said.

“For those of you not aware of that history, the ‘69 storms triggered debris flows and debris-laden floods in every watershed facing the Santa Barbara Channel in our community. There was significant damage and fatalities as a result.”

“As everyone certainly knows, this Monday, Jan. 9, is the five-year anniversary of the catastrophic 1/9 debris flow. While this storm is forecast to be less significant than what occurred on 1/9, it is still powerful, and should be taken very seriously.”

Taylor said the 1969 debris flows were rare because they happened five years after a fire — as the result of a saturation event.

The county has received 8-13 inches of rain in the past 30 days, and this storm could drop 4-10 more inches, he noted.

“That’s why we’ve been communicating to the community the last three years that we no longer have a rain threshold – a short-duration, high-intensity threshold – of debris flow risk. It’s actually based on the notion of a saturation event.

“The weather service defines that as 8-10 inches in 24 to 48 hours. We’re going to see that with this storm, so we believe we’re at a saturation event – so it’s a very similar set-up to what occurred in 1969,” he said.

Taylor expanded on that to Noozhawk, explaining that a storm like what occurred in 1969 can be a life-threatening event.

“The homes that are in red, if there is a catastrophic event like we saw in 1969, the properties that are there, the people that are in those properties, are at risk for their lives. It’s a type of event where it picks up the house and moves it,” Taylor said.

“It’s very important that those people, those community members we’re charged with protecting, that are located in that area, evacuate,” he said.

“We most certainly recognize that nobody wants to be evacuated, we don’t want to evacuate anybody, especially four days before the anniversary of the most horrible event that’s ever occurred in the community. But we absolutely, positively have to do it based upon the forecast,” Taylor said.

“We’re making sure that we remind people of what occurred because, you know, the further that you get away from a disaster, the less the community remembers. So we’re going to an extraordinary effort to remind the community of the risk,” he said.

During Wednesday’s press conference, First District County Supervisor Das Williams made a direct plea to residents in evacuation zones to leave.  

“I know, because I’ve been through the last five years with you, how dismaying this is,” Williams said. “A lot of people wanted to feel like this part of their life was over. But we live in this beautiful place, and there are some consequences of living in this beautiful place, and that is that we have this risk.

“I am urging folks to comply with the evacuation.

“If you live in that red zone, the one thing we should have learned in the past five years is it is better to play it safe and to evacuate and to comply with the order. I know it’s hard to hear it. It’s a hassle, it’s dismaying, but it’s better to play it safe for your family, for your loved ones for the future of the community.”

Santa Barbara County said the Red Cross opened an evacuation shelter at the SBCC Wake Center Campus at 300 N. Turnpike Road near Goleta.

There are animal evacuation services available at Earl Warren Showgrounds, 3400 Calle Real in Santa Barbara, (for large animals) and local animal shelters (for small animals).

Call County Animal Services at 805.681.4332 for information about animal evacuations or the after-hours line at 805.683.2724.

The county’s information call center is at 833.688.5551, and residents can also call 2-1-1 for storm-related information.

Officials stressed that 9-1-1 should only be used for true emergencies.