Fire chief says next storms won’t be so bad

Santa Barbara continues to recover from the onslaught of the recent storms that pounded the city, even as new storms are forecast to strike this weekend.

Only they won’t be so bad.

That’s according to city Fire Chief Chris Mailes, who, along with other staff, 

updated the City Council on Thursday about the impact of the massive winter storm that hit Santa Barbara earlier in the week, and the city’s response.

Chief Mailes said “two waves of energy” are predicted for Friday night into Saturday and Sunday night into Monday.

“We don’t expect to issue flash flood advisories or watches,” he said. The National Weather Service, he said, predicts 1.5 inches of rain to fall from Friday night to Tuesday.

“It shouldn’t be problematic for the community,” he said, “but we’re already watching and will continue to watch every single day.”

Regarding the storm on Monday and Tuesday, Chief Mailes said his department and other emergency responders had been prepared to expect 2 to 4 inches of rain in the city and 4 to 8 inches of rain in the mountains.

But Santa Barbara got a lot more than that.

“We got an 18-inch storm,” City Administrator Rebecca Bjork said.

And other communities were hit hard, too.

Chief Mailes said Montecito residents at first were told to evacuate from only some areas, but between 11 a.m. and noon Monday, “there was a dramatic shift in the weather.

“It was much more than anticipated,” he said. “All 15 zones were told to evacuate.”

He said Santa Barbara officials spent much of the past weekend planning how to reach the public with updated warnings, including using social media and radio.

The chief said his department’s urban search and rescue teams received 110 calls for service “and a great majority were rescues,” mostly people trapped in their vehicles.

Police Chief Kelly Ann Gordon told the council her department received 160 calls from Monday to Tuesday morning to check houses and active flooding areas, and to respond to people trapped in their vehicles and help get them out.

Clifford Mauer, director of the city’s Public Works Department, said the storm put a lot of stress on the city’s aging water distribution system, but it survived intact. He said the city’s program to replace the worst water mains first “has started to pay dividends.”

Similarly, he said the city’s wastewater collection system also made it through the storm OK, despite stormwater and sediment entering the system.

Likewise, all city facilities “fared very well through the storm,” although there were some roof leaks. “All were resolved within an hour or two of being reported,” he said.

City roads, meanwhile, remain structurally sound. “We’re not aware of any significant damage,” he said. “All of the roads are passable today,” including roads that experienced debris flow.

Mike Wiltshire, the city’s waterfront director, said the waterfront “did very well” in terms of flooding, and that all businesses and Stearns Wharf “are open to business.”

The rain was not an issue, he said, but a huge ocean swell on Jan. 5 and 6 was. He called the swell “historical” in terms of size and intensity. 

This kind of swell “happens once every decade, if not every 20 to 30 years,” Mr. Wiltshire said.

The Santa Barbara Yacht Club, he said, suffered damage to its plumbing and utilities as waves washed beneath it. The club’s parking lot and storage space also sustained damage.

The worst problem, however, faces the harbor itself.

Because the swell and storm removed much of the sand in the harbor, “it’s really shallow right now” and is “hazardous to navigate,” Mr. Wiltshire said.

He added that the sand berms built to protect property were destroyed because of wave inundation.

“We’ll continue to monitor for swells and tides,” Mr. Wiltshire told the council. “We might have to close the breakwater and Stearns Wharf as needed.”

Assistant City Administrator Rene Eyerly talked about community recovery efforts.

She said the county is creating a virtual local assistance center. She also noted the city is upping its efforts to connect with people through workshops and online, while working with various city groups and agencies, including United Way, to help businesses and others affected financially by the storms.

“We’re starting this process now and will be unrolling some basic information this week,” she said.

Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez told staff that some residents were confused by conflicting forecasts provided by the city.

City Administrator Bjork noted the storm was a lot worse than anticipated and that residents had been encouraged to “stay home and be safe.”

She said some 300 vehicles got trapped by floods and were damaged or destroyed. So by people choosing to ignore warnings and drive anyway, “they were gambling with a lot of money.”

Fire Chief Mailes said emergency responders can only go with the best intelligence provided at the time by the National Weather Service. For example, a Monday morning prediction of small urban and creek flooding turned into a flash flood warning for the entire county by the afternoon.

Councilmember Oscar Gutierrez also asked if people who live in neighborhoods near creeks should have been warned to take extra precautions.

Chief Mailes said it’s hard to say specifically how far a house needs to be from a creek to be safe, but that “there needs to be a little bit of common sense. If they issue a flash flood advisory or flash flood warning, people should be on alert.”

At the same time, he said, it might have been best to tell people to shelter people in place rather than to evacuate. Residents who choose to leave their homes often can’t simply drive away, he said. 

“A lot of people got trapped outside of their house or in their vehicle,” he said.

“In hindsight, staying at home would have been safe,” the fire chief said. “Not one house was red-tagged as a result of the storm.”

Mayor Randy Rowse thanked staff and emergency responders for their efforts.

“It was a fantastic job by everybody,” he said. “Our system worked. Thank you for your efforts.”

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