LOS ANGELES — A second and final day of heavy rains began pummeling Southern California early Thursday morning as Santa Barbara County residents awakened to emergency phone alerts and calls to evacuate wildfire burn areas.
“Flash flood watch in effect for SB County,” read the 5:19 a.m. alert. “Leave now if you are still in evac/burn areas.”
Fears of rain-driven mudslides — such as those that killed at least 21 people in Montecito on Jan. 9 — prompted authorities to order the evacuation of residents below areas burned by the Thomas fire and other recent fires as early as Tuesday.
Those evacuations followed forecasts of a major storm — a so-called atmospheric river of moist tropical air from the Pacific — that would deliver bouts of moderate to heavy rain to the area for two days.
On Thursday, forecasters said they expect the heaviest rains to hit throughout the morning before a cold front moves in and “takes mercy” on Santa Barbara County, pushing the moisture to the east.
“By later this afternoon, the rainfall should taper off to just scattered showers,” said David Sweet, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “But still, we are concerned about locally heavy showers.”
Sweet said there is a slight chance of thunderstorms over charred mountains that could drop up to an inch of rain per hour “before things completely die off tonight.”
The brief but intense rains that pelted Santa Barbara and Montecito on Thursday morning dramatically increased the flow of Montecito Creek and other waterways that drain the area, prompting officials to renew their call for residents to leave areas vulnerable to mud and debris flows.
In Ojai, officials issued new a mandatory evacuation order for the upper Foothill Road area and directed residents who needed a shelter to Nordhoff High School. The National Weather Service also issued a flash flooding warning for the Thomas fire burn area around the city.
“Unfortunately, we’re anticipating some pretty big issues this morning and this afternoon. It’s the right call to get people out of the way,” said Battalion Chief Chris Mailes of the Santa Barbara Fire Department.
County officials say that a massive effort to clear creeks and debris basins above Montecito and Carpinteria ensured that runoff from the recent rains has so far been channeled quickly to the sea, rather than flooding neighborhoods. That clearing effort involved more than 50,000 truckloads of mud, sediment, boulders, rocks trees and trash, according officials.
Forecasters have scaled back total rainfall projections for the storm and are now expecting 2 to 4 inches on the coasts and in the valleys of Santa Barbara and western Ventura counties, and 4 to 8 inches in the foothills and mountains across the region.
The storm still set several records for the date on Wednesday. The Santa Barbara airport received 1.85 inches of rain, breaking the record of .76 inches set last year. In Paso Robles, a record 1.95 inches of rain beat the .65 inches that fell in 1959. Oxnard, Camarillo and Palmdale also saw record rainfall, Sweet said.
“The storm is living up to the promise,” he said.
In Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County, the storm is expected to dump 1 to 2 inches of rain on the coasts and in the valleys, and 3 to 5 inches in the mountains.
“Thursday was always going to be the peak day for Los Angeles County, and we are finally here,” Sweet said. “It’s going to be a wet morning commute.”
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