Robin Newman with Terri Eddy and Don Jack fill sandbags as they talk about the storm threat to their homes in Santa Barbara County. (Video by Al Seib / LA Times)
Thousands were evacuated in burn areas Monday as the first major rainstorm in nearly a year moved into Southern California, triggering stern warnings from authorities about flash flooding and debris flows.
The rain is of greatest concern in the mountains of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties burned in the massive Thomas fire, where officials said mudslides are possible.
“It does look like the heaviest rainfall amounts would be within or near the Thomas fire burn area,” said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
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By Monday night, showers had fallen throughout the region, but the main storm front was expected to move in early Tuesday, bringing heavy rain, damaging wind gusts and possible thunderstorms, the weather service said.
The slopes that provide such ample views of the California coastline are also forcing up moisture from the storm, further squeezing out heavy rain. The same topography is responsible for the dreaded “sundowner” winds that pushed flames downhill into homes last month.
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Contractors for the city of Ventura work to clear a huge tree toppled by wind on South Chestnut street between Main and Santa Clara Streets in downtown Ventura on Tuesday morning.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A car was stuck in a mudslide early Tuesday morning on Topanga Canyon Blvd., in Topanga.
(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
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Mario Romero looks at mud debris covering Maricopa Highway 33 North of Ojai that has several closures due to mud and debris slides covering the roadway Tuesday morning.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Debris and mud cover the entrance of the Montecito Inn after heavy rain brought flash flooding and mudslides to the area.
(Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press)
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A rainbow appears over the deadly mudslide in Montecito along Olive Mill Road.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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A man walks by destruction along Olive Mill Road in Montecito.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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A sheriffs deputy stands near a body covered by a tarp near Hot Springs Road in Montecito after a deadly mudslide swept through the area.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Mangled cars are stuck near Olive Mill Road in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Tuesday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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A mangled car along with other debris is wrapped around a tree along Hot Springs Road in Montecito.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Scene from the 300 block of Hot Springs Road in Montecito following debris and mud flow due to heavy rain Tuesday morning.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Sheriffs deputies carry a body from the debris near Hot Springs Road in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Tuesday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times )
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Orange County search-and-rescue crews look for missing people along Olive Mill Road and Hot Springs Road in Montecito.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A house is left among boulders and mud along Glen Oaks Drive in Montecito.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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The 101 Freeway is covered with mud and debris at Olive Mill Road in Montecito.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Montecito resident Terry Connery, second from left, is assisted on Wednesday by, from left, firefighters Mark Todd, John Cecena and Jeff Shea after the storm.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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A home off of Romero Canyon Road in Montecito is inundated with mud.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Crews work to clear debris from the closed 101 Freeway at Olive Mill Road in Montecito.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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The 101 Freeway remains closed as mud and debris clog the roadway at the Olive Mill Road overpass in Montecito.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A member of the search and rescue team inpsects property near a home along Glen Oaks Drive in Montecito.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Ventura County fire Capt. Clay Cundiff searches a home for a woman who was reported missing by friends and family on Lilac Drive and Tollis Avenue in Montecito. She was later found safe.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A member of the San Bernardino Search and Rescue holds a picture that was found along the East Cold Springs Creek in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Wednesday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Tim O’Donnell, a member of the L.A. County Search and Rescue team, searches under Ashley Road along the East Cold Springs Creek in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Wednesday.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Travis Zehntner looks over the wreckage of a Glen Oaks Drive home where family friend Rebecca Riskin was killed.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A home on West Park Lane along San Ysidro Creek in Montecito on Thursday.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A Cantin family holiday card in a pile of debris in the 300 block of Hot Springs Road in Montecito. From left, Kim, mother who survived; father David, who was killed; son Jack, who is still missing; and daugher Lauren, who was pulled from the family home early Wednesday.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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A structure sits in a tree Friday on East Valley Road in Montecito.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A dog and its handler from Riverside County search the rubble of a Hot Springs Road home Friday in Montecito.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Water rises high near a home on East Valley Road on Friday in Montecito.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times )
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A dog helps rescue workers search through rocks, mud and debris for bodies Saturday in Montecito.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters look for missing people along Hot Springs Road in Montecito on Saturday.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles City firefighter Jeffrey Neu gives water to Faith, a cadaver dog, while searching in a wood pile in Montectio Creek.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
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A Montecito freeway sign sits in mud on Highway 101.=
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
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A view of the Thomas Fire burn zone and San Ysidro Creek in the Santa Ynez Mountains which brought mud and debris into Montecito neighborhoods.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles City firefighter Hollyn Bullock uses a rescue tool to pry open a car door along Montecito Creek.
(Michael Owen Baker / For The Times)
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Montecito neighbors hug at a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners gather for a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunday for victims of the Montecito mudslides.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Geness Lorien listens to speakers during a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Mourners gather for a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunday for victims of the Montecito mudslides.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Mark Vance shovels mud away from his house on Olive Mill Road in Montecito, California.
(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
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Jesse Rudnick, with the Regional Task Force 1 out of Marin County Fire and Rescue, searches for missing people around a Montecito home.
(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)
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Hugo Bautista, left and Jose Garcia, contractors with Union Pacific Railroad make sure track is clear at the Olive Mill Road crossing in Montecito.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Amtrak has added extra trains and cars for passengers trying to get around the 101 Freeway closure in Montecito.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Crews continue to clear mud and debris from the 101 Freeway near Olive Mill Road on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. Officials said they hoped to have the freeway opened by next Monday.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Cal Trans crews work on clearing a drain along the 101 Freeway in Montecito on Tuesday, January 16, 2018.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A worker takes a breather from directing a bulldozer driver who clears mud from the 101 freeway in Montecito.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Progress is slowly being made as a worker and trucks traverse a recently cleared portion of the the 101 freeway at Olive Mill Road in Montecito.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Santa Barbara Supervisor Joan Hartmann, from front left, Jefferson Litten, Hartmann’s Chief of Staff, and San Barbara City Councilman Eric Friedman, pink shirt, join others as they applaud first responders, fire fighters and law enforcement who’ve been aiding in the aftermath of the Montecito mudslide during a community meeting at the La Cumbre Junior High School in Santa Barbara.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Margaret Stewart, with the Los Angeles City Fire Department, watches as her dog, Veya, tries to locate a victim of the mudslide along Highway 101 at Olive Mill Road in Montecito.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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On Monday afternoon, Los Angeles County issued evacuations in Kagel Canyon, Lopez Canyon and Little Tujunga Canyon, all of which were hit by fires in December. Officials in Duarte also ordered those who live in the Fish fire burn area to evacuate at 7 p.m. A shelter will open at 1600 Huntington Drive.
Evacuations were also ordered in Santa Barbara County neighborhoods that sit below areas recently burned by wildfires.
Residents who live in the following areas were told to evacuate by noon Monday: north of Highway 192, east of Cold Springs Road, and west of Highway 150/the county line, as well as along Tecolote Canyon, Eagle Canyon, Dos Pueblos Canyon, Gato Canyon and in the Whittier fire burn areas near Goleta.
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A voluntary evacuation warning was issued for all areas south of Highway 192 to the ocean and east of Hot Springs Road/Olive Mill Road to Highway 150/county line, Santa Barbara County officials said. In Los Angeles County, Burbank officials issued a voluntary evacuation warning for residents who live in areas burned by the La Tuna fire.
“People in these areas should stay alert to changing conditions and be prepared to leave immediately at your own discretion if the situation worsens,” the county said in a statement.
Teri Lebow, 65, of Montecito, stayed with friends in Los Angeles for 12 days during the Thomas fire. Her San Ysidro Lane home suffered ash and smoke damage from the blaze.
On Monday, she was preparing to evacuate once again, but this time in heavy rain. “I feel like it’s insane,” she said.
“I’m just tired. I can’t seem to get my life kick-started,” Lebow said.
“I don’t have any hills behind my house,” Lebow said, so she’s not nervous about the mudslides doing damage to her home.
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While her husband is traveling for work, Lebow had gardeners put sandbags around her home. She plans to head to a Four Seasons hotel.
The storm was initially forecast to produce up to 4 inches of rain over the south-facing mountains and foothills, but forecasters Monday increased those totals again.
Some communities — particularly within the Thomas fire burn area — could see up to 9 inches of rain between Monday and Tuesday, with rain dropping at a rate of up to 1½ inches an hour, Munroe said. Debris flows begin at about a third of that rate, he said.
The best chance for thunderstorms throughout the region will fall on Tuesday.
When a fire sweeps through an area, it not only burns the vegetation but damages the soil itself. The intense heat makes the soil unable to absorb water the way it normally would.
Downtown L.A. is expected to get about an inch of rain over a 12-hour period beginning at midnight Monday.
A major storm is also hitting Northern California. That is causing concerns about flooding in the wine country fire zone, where more than 10,000 homes were burned in October.
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The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for the burned north Bay Area that begins Monday afternoon and lasts through Tuesday morning.
Good news: #AtmosphericRiver is bringing a much-needed statewide soaking through Tuesday. Bad news: Heightened concern for debris flow and mud/rock slides over recent burn areas, especially in SoCal pic.twitter.com/BAfHIfsfCG
In Southern California, residents who fled the 15,000-acre Creek fire in Los Angeles County were bracing themselves for possible mudslides.
Over the weekend, Patricia Beckmann Wells, her husband and their 5-year-old son began putting out extra sandbags around their property in upper Kagel Canyon, where they’ve lived since 2008. On Monday afternoon, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department began mandatory evacuations for their area.
The Wells family evacuated to a Motel 6 for three days during the Creek fire, but they aren’t planning to leave this time.
“No more Motel 6 for us,” Beckmann Wells said.
Residents in the community received emails from a neighbor over the weekend, with maps outlining the damage from the Creek fire and potential mudslide areas. Each time, the neighbor signed off with: #KagelStrong!
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“Most of us are aware that the lower part of the canyon is going to be a mudslide,” Beckmann Wells said. “We’re expecting to just be trapped in the canyon. Everyone is just out getting supplies and holing up to stay here. Nobody wants to evacuate. They don’t see this as the threat the fire was.”
“The attitude of this group is very rebellious,” she said, adding that neighbors have been checking in with one another to help prepare for the storm. “It’s really such a caring, unique community, in that we’re all aware of who needs what and we’re going to rush over if something happens,” Beckmann Wells said.
She said the family bought gasoline on Sunday and that they’re thinking about getting another generator battery. Beckmann Wells said she is also planning to get food that doesn’t need refrigeration, so that they aren’t too reliant on the generator.
She said her son isn’t worrying about the storm.
“He’s not stressed out, but he is learning how important nature is,” she said. “He’s learning that there are dangerous things in nature that we need to be prepared for.”
Alene Tchekmedyian is an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times. She previously covered the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, focusing on accountability stories and writing about failures by officials to comply with transparency laws. Before joining The Times in 2016, she reported on crime and policing for the Glendale News-Press and Burbank Leader.
Brittny Mejia is a Metro reporter covering federal courts for the Los Angeles Times. Previously, she wrote narrative pieces with a strong emphasis on the Latino community and others that make up the diversity of L.A. and California. Mejia was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2021 in local reporting for her investigation with colleague Jack Dolan that exposed failures in Los Angeles County’s safety-net healthcare system that resulted in months-long wait times for patients, including some who died before getting appointments with specialists. She joined The Times in 2014.