This story was last updated at 10:42 a.m. Friday.
Santa Barbara County officials have laid out a list of factors that that will govern when Montecito can be “repopulated,” and Sheriff Bill Brown has said it’s likely to be a process of letting a few evacuated residents back at a time, not opening the entire community at once.
The Highway 101 closure is a big factor, since surface roads are busy with convoys of heavy trucks and equipment for debris removal and utility repairs.
In that regard, there was good news from Caltrans on Thursday, as the state agency reported that its progress this week means there’s a good chance it will be able to reopen the freeway on Monday.
District 5 spokesman Jim Shivers said crews are installing guardrails, cleaning and striping lanes, and doing slope repair to secure embankments.
Caltrans previously said the roadway would be closed until at least Monday, but that is now the targeted opening time, Shivers said.
The mandatory evacuation area was expanded Jan. 11 to include Montecito areas south of State Route 192, and includes thousands of residents.
The Sheriff’s Department said factors that go into the repopulation decisions include the Highway 101 closure, roadway conditions and access, lack of utilities, health and safety, and the weather forecast.
As of Thursday, there was no estimate of when people will be allowed back in.
“This is not taken lightly,” sheriff’s department spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said. “We know people want to go back to their homes, and as soon as it’s safe to do so, we will open up areas. Right now there are still too many factors.
“We don’t want to put people back in there only to move them out again, or move them in when there are no utilities and no roads to get in and out of the area.”
Utility outages will be considered as to how they affect health and safety, according to Brown, but officials said Tuesday that not having gas service, for one, would not be a reason to keep people out of their homes longer.
Santa Barbara County’s Office of Emergency Management said Thursday that “most major utilities as well as county roads will be back in service in the areas of Montecito outside the areas
impacted by the flood and debris flow. These are areas bounded by Montecito Creek, San Ysidro Creek and Romero Creek.
“Areas impacted by the flood and debris flow will require extensive efforts to provide utilities and road access. Once the utilities are restored in the other areas, decisions will be made on the rapid return of residents to their homes wherever possible.”
The timing of future storms is another consideration: “We don’t want to repopulate this area a day before another storm is anticipated, obviously, so a lot will depend on timing,” Brown previously said.
Law enforcement officers are escorting people into the area to get certain important items, and people can make a request by calling the Emergency Operation Center information number at 833.688.5551.
Click here to view an interactive map of the Montecito mandatory evacuation area and voluntary evacuation areas.
Steps to repopulate Montecito
Twenty people were killed in the mudslides and another three are still missing, and the top priority is finding the missing victims, according to Incident Command officials.
“We spent the first week in a complete rescue mode and for firefighters it’s very hard to transition from that rescue mode to recovery mode,” said Matt Farris, a county Fire Department Division Chief. “It’s something firefighters are not equipped to do, it’s not in our thought process. It’s what we are doing, we want to see closure just like everyone else.”
Repairing infrastructure is the next, daunting task that is furiously underway all over Montecito.
Many homes were destroyed and others are uninhabitable, not to mention the damage to roads, bridges, drainage systems and literally all utilities – water, wastewater, electricity, gas, internet and cable.
As of Thursday, 128 single-family homes were reported destroyed and another 307 were listed as damaged. Six commercial buildings were destroyed and another 17 were damaged, according to Incident Command.
These numbers have been changing day-to-day as crews continue to survey the area.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ main job right now is clearing the Montecito-area debris basins that are overflowing with mud, boulders, trees, etc.
Crews are also working to open clogged bridges and culverts, and carve out creek channels so future rainfall has somewhere to go.
“In many areas, creek corridors cease to exist and were replaced by large debris fields,” said Tom Fayram, water resources manager for the county, at Tuesday’s community meeting.
He said the rainfall expected this week could be helpful, since it will test the capacity of the new drainage system.
Heavy rains in the future can cause more debris flows, like they did in the winter 1995 storms, Fayram noted. A Jan. 10 storm filled up local debris basins and the Corps of Engineers cleared them out, and the March 10 storm filled them again, he said.
Initial events mobilize most loose material, but debris flows – even as minor as mud flowing onto a roadway – will be a constant issue to deal with throughout the winter, Fayram said.
The Public Works Department has been clearing and then widening roadways to create an emergency transportation system and better access for crews. Eventually workers will restore roads to their original condition and replace signs, shoulders and bridges as needed.
The Highway 101 closure has a massive impact on the region, and is exacerbated by the fact that local roads in the Montecito and Summerland areas have also been closed since Jan. 9, cutting off those communities from Santa Barbara.
For hours after the mudslides, into Jan. 10, the road closure checkpoints were inundated with cars, whose drivers insisted Google and Waze said there was a way through or around the disaster area, said Santa Barbara Police spokesman Anthony Wagner.
The city got in touch with Google’s crisis management team to work on getting mapping apps to correctly show the roadways in the area as closed, he said.
Wagner said there was some success, but Google Maps was still suggesting detours through the evacuation zone and closed streets on Thursday.
There are no local driving detours. Vehicles have to go the long way around to reach Ventura County and other Southern California locales (taking Highways 46 or 166 to I-5) or people can take a ferry, Amtrak train, or plane.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the city installed concrete barricades on roads feeding onto Coast Village Road, including Hermosillo Road, Butterfly Lane and Middle Road, even though Coast Village Road itself is not within the mandatory evacuation area.
Wagner said the barricades are meant to stop members of the community from going into the disaster area and keep cars out of the way of dump trucks ferrying debris.
Coast Village Road and State Route 192 have been major thoroughfares for the trucks and heavy equipment working in Montecito.
“The quicker we get dump trucks to their destination, the quicker we can resolve the problem and restore trade and commerce,” Wagner said, adding that officials want roads “unadulterated” by non-response vehicles.
“Everyone’s trying to still find a route to get them south, and the challenge is, the only route available is on the train tracks,” he said.
Utility companies are working to assess and repair damaged infrastructure, and removing more debris will give them better access.
There are widespread water, sanitation, power, gas and internet outages in Montecito, with some progress being made.
Storm damage also caused outages in neighboring communities that are not under evacuation orders, particularly Summerland and Carpinteria, but some services have been restored in the last week.
The Montecito Water District’s system was severely damaged, and the district issued a boil-water notice to customers who had water service, which wasn’t many.
That notice has since been altered twice, declaring it safe to drink water in the Upper Toro Canyon area and the Summerland area.
“It is no longer necessary to boil your tap water or for you to consume bottled water in the Upper Toro Canyon Area as described below: This area includes all properties located on Toro Canyon Road north of East Valley Road (Hwy 192) except for 685, 693 and 695 Toro Canyon Road,” the district said Thursday.
Click here for a map of the Montecito Water Distict boundaries and where the boil-water notice is in effect.
Click here for disaster relief resources and information on the Local Assistance & Recovery Center.
Click here for updates on utility outages, roadway closures and Public Health advisories, including beach closures.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Montecito Mudslides: East Valley Road at Randall Road from Noozhawk on Vimeo.
Montecito Mudslides: East Side of Randall Road from Noozhawk on Vimeo.