Evacuation Ordered For Celebrity-Filled Montecito As California Faces Historic Floods

Topline

All residents of the coastal community of Montecito, California, were ordered to flee their homes Monday due to historic flooding that has killed at least 12 people across California in the past few weeks, with even more rain on the way for much of the waterlogged state.

Key Facts

The evacuation order covers Montecito and surrounding canyon communities in southern Santa Barbara County, northwest of Los Angeles, as continued rain increases the threat of mudslides.

The area is under a flash flood warning until at least 4:45 p.m. Pacific time Monday due to heavy rains possibly leading to “Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses,” according to the National Weather Service.

The order impacts about 10,000 people in Montecito and the surrounding area.

Montecito is famed for its numerous celebrity residents, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, among many others.

What We Don’t Know

It’s not clear when the order might be lifted.

Big Number

Around 90%. That’s how much of California’s population was under flood-related weather bulletins Monday, which accounts for about 10% of the U.S. population, according to CNN.

Key Background

This is just the latest round of rain California has dealt with since late December due to a series of winter storms that have lashed the state. Rainfall totals in “nearly all of California” have been 400-600% above average over the past few weeks, the National Weather Service reported, with additional rain likely through Tuesday. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Sunday that 12 people died due to the weather, which has also brought wind gusts near hurricane-force. More than 100,000 people are without power in California, according to PowerOutage.us. The cause of the deluge has been a series of systems called “atmospheric rivers”—narrow bands of storms that can travel long distances and drop a tremendous amount of rain. Forecasters expect another system could wallop the state this weekend.

Tangent

The evacuation order comes five years to the day after a mudslide killed 23 people in Montecito.

Further Reading

90% of Californians are under flood watches as another storm threatens mudslides, power outages and deadly inundation (CNN)

12 Californians have died in past 10 days in extreme weather, Gov. Newsom says (CBS News)