Edhat Staff
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff made a live statement Thursday at 11:00 announcing mandatory evacuation orders for the approaching winter storm.
Sheriff Bill Brown announced mandatory evacuations for all residents living under the Thomas, Sherpa, and Whittier wildfire burn areas are effective immediately. Individuals must be out of the area depicted on the below map by 6:00 p.m. Thursday.
Brown continued by stating this is a challenging storm that’s traveling down the coast of California. It has already gone through Monterey County and is currently in the San Luis Obispo area. The direction and trajectory are “impossible to predict” on where it will hit exactly, said Brown.
According to Brown, weather officials stated the most significant part of the storm is expected to arrive between 2:00 – 8:00 a.m. Friday.
Sheriff’s Deputies are going door to door in extreme risk areas to notify residents of the mandatory evacuation. “We will contact as many people as possible,” said Brown while emphasizing that they will not be able to reach every single person. He emphasized the need for people to spread the word to anyone they know.
Approximately 22,000 residents live in the evacuation areas and it’s estimated that 25,000 – 30,000 people will be affected and will need to leave the area.
Brown highlighted the potential threat that is on the way. He explained this storm is right on the cusp of their protocol but after consultations and discussions, it was decided to issue the mandatory evacuation order. This is the first storm since January 9thand officials don’t know how the watershed will react while hearing it’s precarious and dangerous at this time. “We want to make sure no one is in harm’s way,” said Brown.
Highway 101 will remain open for evacuations up through the onset of the storm. California Highway Patrol will evaluate the roads based on the intensity of the storm and will make the decision to shut down the roadways. CHP stated on their Twitter page they will close Highway 101 around 2:00 a.m. Friday if needed.
The County of Santa Barbara is hosting a live press conference to address the approaching winter storm and evacuations on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
Officials will cover the weather forecast, pre-incident planning, evacuations and procedures, storm preparedness, and the potential closure of Highway 101.
Below is a recording of the video feed of the press conference:
Way to go, Edhat!! You are WAY outdoing the other local media on this. Bravo! If I wasn’t an Edhat subscriber before, I’d be one now.
Reposting a link to a facebook video is now considered “outdoing other local media”? I actually prefer the other media outlets that add some context and analysis rather than just clickjacking a video I’d rather (and did) get from the source.