Heavy rains pounded Santa Barbara County this week, flooding streets, creeks and riverbeds, but the region mostly escaped serious damage, authorities said.

A lot of the problems, said Santa Barbara City Fire Chief Chris Mailes, could also have been avoided.

“We had numerous people driving around barricades and getting stuck,” Mailes told Noozhawk. “If you can’t see the tops of the curbs, then don’t go in the water.”

Storm runoff flooded the Mission, Garden and Castillo street underpasses in Santa Barbara, forcing them to be shut down.

In the unincorporated county areas, the Randall Road debris basin in Montecito, Atascadero Creek in the Goleta Valley, Padaro Lane in Carpinteria, and construction sites were hit hard.

Essentially, there was a lot of water and mud, but no injuries.

About 9 inches of rain fell on San Marcos Pass near Highway 154 this week, while nearly 7 inches was recorded in parts of Santa Barbara, according to the county Public Works Department.

About 5 inches dumped on Carpinteria, and Buellton received about 4 inches over the course of the week.

Lake Cachuma is about 89% full after measuring 4.74 inches of rain during the recent storm.

Gibraltar Reservoir on the Upper Santa Ynez River measured about 9 inches of rain and was at 86% capacity on Friday. Jameson Reservoir upstream is full and received about 9.3 inches of rain.

But authorities and officials said the city of Santa Barbara was the hardest hit.

The city received 122 flood-related calls for service.

The first one, Mailes, said, came in just after 9 a.m., with a report from a caller who said he was trapped underneath the Mission Street underpass and was “drowning.”

The Fire Department arrived and rescued the individual.

Another car was reported “partly submerged” at the Carrillo Street underpass.

Many motorists told authorities that “the water came up really, really quickly,” and that it was “rising like a bathtub.”

Mission, Castillo, Garden, East Gutierrez and Spring streets received the most flooding, Mailes said.

Flooding also was reported on several Lower Eastside streets, and along Cabrillo Boulevard.

“It just comes down to capacity of our storm channel system and storm drains to be able to handle that water,” Mailes said.

City properties, he said, also experienced roof leaks, “but overall we did pretty well.”

Walter Rubalcava, deputy director of Water Resources for Santa Barbara County, said the county was “lucky” to have a dry watershed going into the storm.

The ground is now saturated, he said, so if there are more heavy storms, the runoff into creeks and urban areas will be more significant.

“This was the first major rain after a dry watershed, which helped us significantly,” Rubalcava said.

There is a 40% chance of showers Friday afternoon, with sunny skies and highs in the low- to mid-60s expected through Christmas Day. Overnight lows should be in the upper-40s.

The next chance of rain is on Wednesday and Thursday night week.

Click here for the latest forecast from the National Weather Service.

Click here for rainfall totals around Santa Barbara County.