Residents Urged to Be Prepared for Possible Flooding

By edhat staff

Santa Barbara County held a community storm preparedness meeting at Direct Relief on Thursday evening.

County of Santa Barbara public safety and flood control officials and the U.S. Forest Service Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) team were available to provide information and answer questions.

Several local officials attended the presentation as well. Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gregg Hart said we’re going into the winter season and we do not have all the answers yet but want to be completely transparent with all the information available to be prepared.

Santa Barbara County Fire Captain Daniel Bertucelli detailed the events surrounding the Cave Fire, which burned 3,126 acres starting on November 25 and was fully contained on December 14. There were no injuries and no residential structures damaged but resulted in thousands of evacuations.

County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig discussed the ongoing risk of mud and debris flow as a new rainstorm is expected to land on Sunday. The department and surrounding agencies are increasing their staffing to prepare for the storm.

Residents were encouraged to sign up for readysbc.org for alerts and to view the updated debris flow map. Officials stated that if anyone feels threatened they should leave immediately and having first-aid kits and emergency bags would be helpful.

The full meeting can be viewed below:

December 17, 2019 : Cave Fire Winter Storm Meeting