Southern California digging out from days of relentless rain
LOS ANGELES — Residents across California’s Central Coast were allowed to return home Tuesday following a torrential storm that swamped the region with eye-popping amounts of rain and choked many roadways with mud and debris.
As of 2 p.m. Pacific time, all evacuation orders and shelter-in-place advisories had been canceled in Montecito and the rest of Santa Barbara County, officials said. Earlier in the day, authorities lifted evacuation orders and warnings in Paso Robles.
“The storm that we just experienced was a significant and powerful weather event, one in a series of storms that have and will continue to hit Santa Barbara County,” said Sheriff Bill Brown.
Rain deluged the entire county, he added in an afternoon news conference, “but the south county area was especially impacted, with unprecedented and historic rainfall levels.”
The powerful winter storm is not yet entirely in California’s rearview mirror. Evacuation orders or warnings were in place for a long stretch of the Salinas River, downstream of the town of Bradley — including parts of King City and the entire town of Spreckels, Monterey County officials said. A stretch of the Carmel Valley was also under an evacuation order, as were some areas along the Big Sur River.
Along the
