Michael Clark has seen heavy rain soak Montecito, but not like the downpour Saturday night.

“This rain was more,” the longtime Montecito resident said Sunday, estimating it lasted about 45 minutes. “It was more water and more intensity than we’ve ever experienced.”

Clark recalled hearing the heavy rain falling Saturday night and water flowing in the nearby creek located 10 to 15 feet from his residence on upper San Ysidro Road.

The creek is seasonal and unnamed, Clark said.

“In five minutes it increased twofold is what I was guessing,” he said, adding that he asked his son to check the kitchen, knowing it was vulnerable to flooding.

“Long story short, that rain kept going, thunder and lightning started in, too. Big heavy shower, and I’d say within 5 to 10 minutes, my whole kitchen floor was 4 inches deep in water and rising.”

The family had placed sandbags to try to stop the water entering from the back door.

Water also was filling the backyard, which sits in a low spot so they added sandbags to another area where a river was flowing onto the property.

Efforts to stop the water flow worked only briefly as the rain kept falling.

“Before I knew it we had a foot of water in the whole lower floor,” Clark said.

The strong flow knocked down part of a what he called “a good sized” sandbag wall, some 3-4 feet tall and 10 feet long, created earlier this year.

“It was scary,” he said. “We basically got to the point where we felt helpless to stop it.”

His 33-year-old son, Jon Clark, worked in the rain to shore up the section of sandbag wall knocked over by the flood water.

“My son said at some points he felt like he was in the ocean getting caught inside on a big wave or something,” Clark said. “It was that much water coming down.”

The effort to shore up the sandbag wall, along with a letup in the rain, helped avoid more extensive damage.

“I’m really glad I had the sandbag wall in between the creek and our place because that kind of saved us,” Clark said.

The water level reached 10 to 12 inches on the lower floor of the house. Had it risen higher, appliances — including the water heater, washing machine, dryer and more — likely would have been lost.

Still, it wasn’t how Clark had planned to spend the night of his 65th birthday, or the day after. And he was surprised by the heavy rain.

“We got the alert when pretty much all the damage was done,” he said.

The spring storm included thunder and lightning that Clark called “pretty impressive and gnarly.”

The intense storm led to flooding on Highway 101, trapping hundreds of drivers for several hours between Olive Mill Road and Sheffield Drive.

The freeway had fully reopend by Sunday morning.

“A lot of parts outside where all white with hail, almost like snow” Clark said, adding some residents mistakenly referred to the piles of white stuff as snow.

“This was the biggest hail storm and thunder and lightning and heavy downpours that I’ve seen in probably 25, 30 years in Montecito,” he said, adding it appeared the Montecito watershed seemed to be hit hardest.

“It was all focused right in the 93108,” said Clark, who worked for the Montecito Water District before his recent retirement.

Caltrans crews were working Sunday to remove debris from Highway 101 and reopen the southbound entrance and exit ramps at Sheffield Drive.

The freeway wasn’t the only roadway dealing with the effects of the storm.

Debris, rocks and mud slid onto Ortega Hill Road on Saturday night, leading to the closure between Sheffield and Ortega Ridge in Summerland. Cleanup work by Santa Barbara County Public Works Department crews continued Sunday.

Romero Canyon Road between Bella Vista and Lilac drives reopened Sunday afternoon after being closed due to downed utility lines.

A chance of cool and unsettled weather with more rain is back in the forecast Thursday night and into Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Until then, Santa Barbara County will see sunny skies and slightly warmer daytime temperatures with mostly clear conditions at night.

A dusting of snow could be seen Sunday on the San Rafael Mountains.

The week’s forecast included 2 to 4 inches of snow for elevations above 6,000 feet and 1 to 3 inches for elevations between 4,500 and 6,000 feet, according to a winter storm warning issued by the weather service.

As of Sunday morning, 24-hour rainfall totals ranged from 2.59 inches at Gibraltar Dam, 2.21 inches at San Marco Pass, 1.98 inches in Santa Barbara, 1.85 inches at Lake Cachuma, 1.29 inches in Goleta, 0.79 inches in Carpinteria, 0.73 inches in Lompoc, 0.53 inches in Santa  Ynez, 0.49 inches in Buellton, and 0.16 inches in Santa Maria, according to the county Flood Control District rainfall report.

The storm totals, spanning two days, were 5.89 inches at San Marcos Pass, 5.59 at Gibraltar Dam, 3.97 in Santa Barbara, 3.79 at Lake Cachuma, 2.90 in Carpinteria, 2.32 in Lompoc, 1.28 in Buellton and 0.76 in Santa Maria.