No Deaths, Injuries, or Rescues from February Storm in Santa Barbara County

Santa Barbarans have grown highly accustomed to the rigors of duck-and-cover drills when it comes to fires and floods, and this weekend’s storm — a turbo-charged atmospheric river capable of triggering life-threatening flash floods — came and went with a modicum of damage to property and things, but no humans were injured or even required rescuing by the time the storm retreated this Monday.

Well before Santa Barbara creeks jumped their banks in numerous locations — the lower reaches of downtown Santa Barbara and the burn-scarred areas charred by the Thomas, the Alisal, and the Cave Fires — county law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies had knocked on 506 doors urging residents to evacuate. Of those, the occupants at 85 residences answered the door and said they would evacuate; 175 were there and said they would not evacuate; and 175 were not there to answer. Of the remaining homes, 52 were vacant, and 47 were not accessible.

While this weekend’s storm did not measure up to the violent intensity of the January 2023 deluge that inflicted enough damage to draw the likes of Governor Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden for ceremonial emergency proclamations — or the El Niño whopper of 1995 — it was enough to warrant the governor to issue a state of emergency for Santa Barbara and seven other counties, and the county also proclaimed a local emergency. Wind gusts hit velocities of 50 to 80 miles an hour in places, enough to make it rain sideways. At the storm’s apex Sunday afternoon, rain gauges at El Capitan, Refugio, and Gaviota state parks registered rainfall of 3.6 inches in just one hour.

<img data-attachment-id="515767" data-permalink="https://www.independent.com/2024/02/05/no-deaths-injuries-or-rescues-from-february-storm-in-santa-barbara-county/av3a9418/" data-orig-file="https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?fit=4008%2C2672" data-orig-size="4008,2672" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"2","credit":"","camera":"Canon EOS R","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1707147995","copyright":"","focal_length":"70","iso":"1000","shutter_speed":"0.0005","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="AV3A9418" data-image-description="" data-image-caption="

High surf battered the marina in Santa Barbara on Monday, February 5, 2024.

” data-medium-file=”https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?fit=300%2C200″ data-large-file=”https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?fit=1024%2C683″ decoding=”async” fetchpriority=”high” width=”4008″ height=”2672″ src=”https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=1024&resize=4008%2C2672″ alt=”” class=”wp-image-515767″ srcset=”https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=4008 4008w, https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=300 300w, https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=768 768w, https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=1024&resize=4008%2C2672 1024w, https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=600 600w, https://www.independent.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/AV3A9418.jpg?w=3000 3000w” sizes=”(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px” data-recalc-dims=”1″ />

Although the flash flood warnings expired at midnight on Monday and all evacuation orders for the county were lifted 12 hours later, a high surf advisory remained in effect through 9 p.m. Sunday, and a flood watch is in place through Tuesday at 4 p.m. Storm impacts are expected to continue for several days. Public safety officials have taken pains to stress the ground remains exceptionally saturated, that branches can snap, and that the soil can suddenly shift; people, they say,  should still deploy common sense and take appropriate precautions. Now, for example, is not an advisable time to go wading in the creeks.

Currently, county crews are still assessing the extent of property damage. To date, the county has sustained about $6 million in costs from the storm. That includes about $5 million in flood control expenditures on creek work and about $1 million on road work. While that’s chicken feed compared to the $100 million or more the county spent in response to last year’s punishing floods, it’s still significant.

“If we  don’t get reimbursed, that’s going to be gnarly,” said Supervisor Das Williams.

The county will be seeking state and federal reimbursement for such emergencies. But even though the vast majority of  last year’s expenses are reimbursable, the federal government has been slow to write the county its checks. That’s understandable given the vast quantity of emergency work bills being submitted to the federal government in response to the explosion in the number and scale of natural disasters taking place. 

Multiple trees — waterlogged by the rain — were knocked down by the stiff winds. The eucalyptus trees by Ellwood Mesa — known for their shallow root systems — were especially susceptible. Some of these trees fell on power lines. As a result, residents on the outskirts of Lompoc found themselves without power for a considerable period, while a smattering of South Coast residents within Santa Barbara city limits had to forgo the pleasures of electrification for briefer periods.

Schools were canceled on Monday, but were set to reopen Tuesday. Likewise, potential jurors were excused from showing up for jury duty this Monday, but as of Tuesday, the obligations of civic life are back.

Members of the public who have experiences property loss or damage are invited to file a statement detailing the loss on the county’s emergency response website, ReadySBC.org. Information from these statements will be used by the county to help secure state and federal emergency response funds; it is not to be confused with a private insurance claim.

In downtown Santa Barbara, the flash point struck between 3 and 4 p.m. Sunday. The lower Eastside — down by Haley and Gutierrez streets were fit for kayaking and paddle-boarding but not for driving. The rains came so hard and fast that even in steep upland terrains — such as West Valerio Street just downslope from Elings Park — entire streets were covered and deep sheets threatened to stop cars in their tracks, particularly in the engineered dips in the road designed either to convey water or slow down speeding drivers.

On the lower reaches of De la Vina — below Haley Street — neighbors had formed their own de facto Bucket Brigade to get ready for the onslaught. One resident spent $3,000 in plywood and other materials to fend off the invading waters.

Last year’s rains deposited enough mud on the street to practically plant row crops; cars were swept away. This year, City Hall stepped up in advance, making city parking lots available as a safe parking refuge. As a result, only one car was reported seriously damaged.

City Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez emerged as the single most ubiquitous elected official, showing up in person with extra sand bags for residents. Earlier, Gutierrez extended the hours during which City Hall dispensed free sandbags to residents. Even so, Gutierrez recounted, there were lines around the block.

“There needs to be some kind of machine to fill those bags much more quickly,” he said. “People had to fill them manually; that’s why there were so many lines.”

In the half hour he left that stretch of De la Vina to go see how the Eastside was doing, Gutierrez said, the creek topped the Haley Street Bridge. It was the second time in two years and the third time since the new bridge had been installed as part of a creek-long, natural-bottomed, flood-control effort hatched after the 1995 floods scoured out the neighborhood and much of the city.

Even with the wider bridge, Haley Street remains a pinch point. That’s because the south-westerly abutment from the old bridge remains, making it a significant property protrusion. That remains a sticking point for onrushing waters and an element of the re-channelization project for Mission Creek that still needs to be done.

But that work is not restricted to just the abutment. Several key gaps in the work remain, starting where Canon Perdido Street crosses the creek and points down channel. To get the additional channel width necessary to carry the volume of water targeted by the improvements — 3,400 cubic feet per second — will require the purchase of considerable property that now functions as someone’s backyard.

That, however, is a fight for another day. For now, De la Vina Street resident and longtime neighborhood champion Sharon Byrne exclaimed, “We made it. It was pretty hairy. That creek was really raging.”

The post No Deaths, Injuries, or Rescues from February Storm in Santa Barbara County appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.