No deaths or major injuries or missing persons were reported in the massive storm that deluged Santa Barbara County on Monday, according to Sheriff Bill Brown.
Huge amounts of rainfall drenched the region and caused major property damage amid widespread flooding, fallen trees, debris flows and rockfalls.
On Tuesday morning, as the Flood Watch ended, crews were out clearing roadways and removing debris across the county.
The county Board of Supervisors got an update on storm impacts during Tuesday’s meeting.
They met remotely via Zoom since most of the supervisors live on the other side of highway closures from the county’s administration building.
“I think that is really an amazing fact that there was this much mayhem and no one got hurt,” said Supervisor Das Williams, who represents the First District, including Montecito and Carpinteria.
County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig said emergency responders conducted about 100 rescues Monday, including helping people out of moving water, standing water, and submerged vehicles.
The National Weather Service said the storm brought historic amounts of rainfall – 6 inches to Santa Barbara and 12 inches to San Marcos Pass in a 24-hour period.
Lake Cachuma is filling up and expected to spill this weekend for the first time since 2011.
Santa Barbara County proclaimed a local emergency, asked for mutual aid from other California counties, and lobbied successfully to get included on the federal emergency declaration for this week’s storms.
Hartwig said Anaheim, La Verne, and Pasadena sent water teams and rescue teams and high-water vehicles to Santa Barbara to help, since those areas had extra resources and equipment.
“We have no reports of injuries or any reports of anybody missing at this point, and that’s great,” Hartwig said.
Brown said the county hopes to repopulate evacuated areas on Tuesday, pending safety assessments and roads being accessible.
The storm was scary for a lot of people, and not just because it was the five-year anniversary of the Jan. 9, 2018, debris flows that killed 23 people, injured dozens more, and damaged 500 structures, Williams said.
“I think many people couldn’t believe that last night was exactly five years and perhaps people felt, maybe cursed would be the right way to put it, and I just want to tell you I know this time was hard for you,” he said.
If it’s true that no one got seriously injured, “I don’t think we’re cursed,” he said.
“I think if we as a community persevered through this storm, which was a record-setting storm, maybe the biggest in our inhabited community’s history, and we did so without anyone being killed or seriously, injured, then we are truly, truly blessed. And if we continue working, we’ll come out of this even stronger.”
As of noon Tuesday, Highway 101 was still closed in both directions in Ventura, and northbound lanes were closed between Winchester Canyon Road in Goleta and Highway 1 north of Gaviota
Highway 1 remained closed from Highway 101 to Highway 246, and Highway 154 was still closed in both directions due to significant rockfalls.
Supervisor Bob Nelson said he was disappointed that the evacuation orders did not include people living in riverbeds in Santa Maria and Lompoc, and asked Brown why not.
“It seems like those people were the most vulnerable in our county; they actually live in a watercourse,” Nelson said.
Brown said the county worked with local police departments and outreach workers to notify people living in the riverbeds and most people had left the area before Monday’s storms.
“We don’t typically evacuate areas that are not habitable areas. We typically evacuate areas that are communities,” he said.
Santa Barbara County has storm-related information at readysbc.org.
