During the past few weeks, travelers hoping to catch a flight out of town or to Santa Barbara have found themselves stranded because of unprecedented rain and flooding at the Santa Barbara Airport.

Back-to-back storms in December and early January forced the SBA to close its facility because of flooding on the runways, and several flights were canceled each time.

Chris Hastert, the airport director, estimated that about half of the daily 23 flights at the airport were affected by the closures.

He said the issue was created by a combination of extreme rain and overflooding of the slough next to the airport. The slough is connected to multiple streams: the Carneros Creek, San Pedro Creek and Tecolotito Creek.

“All of those combine and join in to go into the Goleta Slough,” Hastert said, “which is on our property and right next to the main airport facilities. Those runoffs from these severe storms overwhelmed the capacity of those streams. So, those streams then overflowed onto the airport for a significant amount of time.”

In response to the closures, Hastert said that many airports face difficulties with weather, and SBA is no different. He added that airport staff worked hard to reopen as soon as possible, and they are working to improve the airport drainage and infrastructure to prevent flooding issues in the future.

“Hopefully the closures will become shorter or nonexistent in the future, but we’re definitely focused on this from a number of different vantage points,” Hastert said.

He added that when water begins to pool in the field next to the airport, it can hold about 6 million gallons of water. When the field cannot hold any more water, it starts to spill onto the pavement of the runway.

Airport staff use pumps to remove water along the runway, but Hastert said the amount of rain during the past few weeks was too much for the pumps to effectively remove.

As soon as the water reaches the runway, Federal Aviation Administration guidelines say that the airport must close. Planes cannot land or take off if there is flooding because of the risk of hydroplaning.

“We’re forced to close the runway because we just don’t want a situation where somebody lands and hydroplanes off of the runway,” Hastert said, “either damaging aircraft or potentially even injuring people.”

Hastert said airport officials try to keep track of how close water gets to the pavement, but they do not always have a lot of time. In the past, major storms have not flooded the airport, so there was no need to shut down. The airport did shut down for flooding during a February 2024 storm.

He said the airport has only about an hour to alert airlines and other stakeholders when the water reaches a point where airport officials believe it will spill onto the runway.

Flooding Prevention

The airport has taken measures to prevent flooding and respond quickly when it does occur.

Staff have added concrete k-rails around the area to prevent flooding. They also have inflatable flood barriers placed in specific zones to block water from spilling onto the tarmac.

Hastert said the airport has been aware of the issue and is expecting heavier rainy seasons in the coming years. Airport officials have already taken steps to prepare for those seasons.

Long-Term Plans

The airport completed a Drainage Master Plan in 2024, which includes a review of the airport’s drainage system inventory, hydrologic and hydraulic analyses, conceptual designs for future construction, and cost estimates for improvements.

Future construction could include storm drainage systems, drainage structures, drainage channel grading, erosion control measures, flood control and detention basins.

Hastert said those plans were formed in response to the storms in 2023.

The Regional Coastal Adaptation Monitoring Program is an active project in collaboration with the City of Santa Barbara to monitor rising sea levels and flooding.

Another project that the airport is working on is the Airport Climate Adaptation Plan, which will look at vulnerabilities to the airport and the effects construction could have on the environment.

The Airport Commission is scheduled to discuss the plan on Jan. 21 at the Airport Administration Office at 601 Firestone Road. The meeting is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

One idea is to change the Carneros Creek to its original water levels, but officials need to review the effect on the local ecosystem before moving forward.