What Happened? The Deadly Montecito Mudslides
The devastating effects of the wildfires in Southern California last year have created the perfect conditions for deadly mudslides and floods. According to ABC, “Heavy rain unleashed flash floods and debris flow in the southern part of California Tuesday, just weeks after several wildfires torched the area. At least 17 people have died, another 8 are missing and more than two dozen are injured in the Golden State from weather-related incidents, according to Santa Barbara County officials.” This disaster took place in the same community in Montecito where just last month, firefighters battled the largest wildfire in the state’s history.
According to The Huffington Post, some Santa Barbara and Ventura county residents who just returned to their homes after evacuating from the Thomas fire (which burned through over 280,000 acres in Southern California), did not want to leave again when they received the flood warnings. Consequently, some lost their homes and others lost their lives. Burned soil is an impervious cover, similar to pavement. After a wildfire, rainfall that would normally be absorbed by the ground creates fast-flowing runoff and much less rain is needed to cause flash flooding.
As this rapidly flowing runoff makes it way through the fire-scorched areas, it picks up soil, sand, debris and dead vegetation. Many plants and trees whose root systems might have held back mudflow were destroyed during the Thomas fire. According to the National Weather Service, “Locations downhill and downstream from the burn scar left by a wildfire are susceptible to flash flooding, debris flow and mudslides.” The force of this debris, mud, and rushing water can be deadly and damage infrastructure miles away from the fire-scorched areas.
According to The Los Angeles Times, “officials said in the days leading up to the storm, a team of people, including meteorologists, Cal Fire, U.S. Forest Service, local firefighters and flood district personnel, worked to estimate where the mudslides would hit.” But, unfortunately, it’s not an exact science — a lot depends on the amount of rainfall and where it falls. “The 0.86 inches of rain that fell in less than 15 minutes came at an intensity no one predicted.”
Tom Fayram, deputy Santa Barbara County Public Works director, told The Los Angeles Times that it’s almost impossible to predict which areas will flood in the event of heavy rains. When debris fills up a channel, the water could break out and go anywhere. That’s why officials blanketed the entire area with evacuation warnings, he said, because “there was no way to tell, with the time we had, what’s safe and not.”
However, though they utilized public websites, social media, news outlets, and community emails to spread warnings of possible deadly mudslides, county officials opted not to initially send out warnings through their push alert system. According to The Huffington Post, “the state’s emergency alert protocol has been under scrutiny since the October wildfire disaster in Northern California, which left more than 40 people dead. And, citing “evacuation-fatigue” as a reason as well as not taking the threat seriously, many individuals decided not to evacuate.
Today, up to 43 people still remain missing in Montecito and the dead include 4 children. The Los Angeles Times reported that “the Montecito mudslides takes a grim place as one of California’s deadliest flooding events in several years. Like several recent disasters, including the deadly wildfires in wine country, it has sparked debate about what could be done to get more people out of harm’s way.”
Individuals often think of flooding as entire cities or entire areas, but flooding can also include micro-flooding which includes smaller areas at unpredictable volumes. Educating the public and keeping them connected through applications, technology, and public resources (like real-time websites that assess flood levels across large areas and counties), are essential as the severity of floods and wildfires becomes more frequent around the globe.
