Montecito ordered to evacuate as intense storm brings flood fears to Southern California
LOS ANGELES — Five years to the day after storm-induced mudslides ravaged Montecito, the entire town was ordered to evacuate as a deadly winter storm plowed through the area.
Evacuation orders were also issued for parts of Santa Barbara and the nearby communities of Carpinteria and Summerland due to Monday’s deluge.
The weather took a deadly turn in San Luis Obispo County, where floodwaters swept away a 5-year-old boy and a motorist died after entering a flooded roadway.
The conditions prompted officials to plead that residents stay home.
“This is not a day to be out doing anything if you don’t have to,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.
The storm’s force and duration was readily apparent, with videos from the area showing normally tame creek beds transformed into raging torrents, roads choked with water and debris and, in one case, a person kayaking down a street swamped by windshield-high water.
In Montecito, the storm called to mind the devastating January 2018 mudslides that killed 23 people, destroyed 130 homes and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
On Monday afternoon, Ryan
