Local fire crews responded to more than 70 storm-related incidents in Montecito Saturday night after the area received nearly 2 inches of rain in just one hour.
Fire and rescue crews responded to “major impacts” including multiple calls about flooded homes, power lines down, fallen trees, gas leaks, and debris on roadways, officials said.
Montecito Fire Protection District Chief David Neels said the intense rainfall caused significant impacts for residents.
“That amount of rainfall is not a normal occurrence in any of our storms we’ve seen throughout this rainfall period,” Neels said. “That’s where it became a record-setting, once-in-50-years type event. We don’t see this amount of rainfall in such a short time frame, and that is the first time we’ve seen it to those levels this year.”
Montecito received a total of 6.27 inches of rain in four days, with the peak rate being 1.88 inches in one hour, which was recorded at the National Weather Service monitoring station, said Joseph Sirard of the NWS Office in Oxnard.
The Montecito Water District station recorded 0.34 inches of rain in just five minutes Saturday night, and 1.66 inches in one hour, according to Sirard.
In comparison, the peak rainfall rate in Montecito during the deadly 2018 debris flows was 0.6 inches in five minutes and 0.69 inches in 10 minutes, according to Sirard.
Those downpours on a fire-scorched landscape caused the debris flows that killed 23 people and damaged and destroyed hundreds of homes on Jan. 9, 2018.
Storm Damage and Rescues in Montecito Area
On Saturday night, Caltrans and California Highway Patrol crews closed Highway 101 for several hours due to flooding.
Local fire crews rescued eight people and one dog from flooded vehicles on the freeway at Sheffield Drive, according to Montecito Fire.
One driver who was trapped in their vehicle near the Sheffield Drive underpass was treated for hypothermia after being rescued, because of the cold water, fire spokeswoman Christina Atchison said.
On Saturday night, the storm caused a sinkhole along Sycamore Canyon Road that resulted in a gas line break. Nearby residents had to shelter in place until the gas was shut off and the area was deemed safe, Neels said.
He also said the area received a significant amount of hail, about 2-3 inches along East Valley Road near the Birnam Wood Golf Club.
“Along with the significant rainfall came significant hail to the area as well, which was pretty unusual for our storms to have that much hail actually remain on the ground, and it remained on the ground in a lot of the shaded areas into Sunday afternoon,” Neels said.
Neels said the areas most significantly damaged from the storm were around San Ysidro Creek and Sheffield Drive, lower areas of Butterfly Lane, and Channel Drive.
While the storm may be over, Neels said his department is still receiving calls and is working with the county’s Public Works and Flood Control staff on clean-up and recovery efforts.
“There’s still more calls for service in regards to residents coming home and finding mud or debris damage to the residences,” Neels said.
Montecito Fire responded to the busy weekend of emergency calls with assistance from Carpinteria-Summerland Fire, Santa Barbara City Fire and Santa Barbara County Fire departments.
Storm Rainfall Totals
From the weekend storm, the South Coast received most of the heavy rain.
Three-day storm totals as of Monday morning showed Carpinteria recorded 3.2 inches of rain, Santa Barbara got 4.1 inches of rain and Goleta got 3.4 inches of rain, according to county Public Works.
North County areas did see some showers but not the heavy rain and thunderstorms the South Coast had.
Three-day storm totals showed Guadalupe got 1.7 inches of rain, Lompoc recorded 2.4 inches of rain, Santa Maria got 0.7 inches of rain, Solvang got 2.0 inches of rain, and Santa Ynez got 1.8 inches, according to county rainfall monitoring.
