Santa Barbara County Takes a Breath Between Historic Rainstorms
Jarrod Zinn
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) – Local agencies spoke at this morning’s Santa Barbara County Board Of Supervisors meeting with data from the rainstorms over the last four days.
While the southern portions of Santa Barbara county did see some fallen trees and road closures, officials acknowledged a rather smooth weekend for the northern portions of the county.
“While overall it was a good storm there were areas where if it had kept raining at some of the intensity that did, we could have had some issues or we’re fortunate that we didn’t,” said Chris Sneddon with Santa Barbara County Public Works.
Of significant concern to local agencies were the Gifford and Madre burn scar areas. But officials say they held up better than expected for rain levels at 400% of our annual average at this time of year.
“This is kind of some weather we usually don’t see this early on,” says Anthony Stornetta, Santa Barbara County’s Deputy Fire Chief of Emergency Operations. “And if you look at our current precipitation, we’re already at 50% our annual rainfall right now with what we’ve received so far.”
Attention is turning now to the next storms.
Warming centers have been activated for the homeless population in order to keep the Santa Maria and Lompoc riverbeds clear.
“We have what we call a storm risk decision meeting whenever we get big storms,” says Stornetta. “And that’s where we really look at our protective actions. Do we need to do anything to shelter in place? Do we need to do evacuation warnings or orders?”
Officials remind the public to sign up for emergency alerts at readysbc.org.
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