While California is in the grip of strong storms, the authorities evacuate the city of Montecito, where many stars reside, including Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, or even Harry and Meghan.
Heavy rains were still expected to hit California on Tuesday where the storms that have been battering for ten days have already killed 12 people and prompted the authorities to order the evacuation of the wealthy town of Montecito where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle live, threatened by mudslides.
Located an hour and a half drive north of Los Angeles, this coastal town of about 9,000 people is a celebrity haunt. Actress Jennifer Aniston and TV presenter Oprah Winfrey, among others, own homes there worth millions of dollars.
“EVACUATE NOW!” Urged the city’s firefighters on their website on Monday, advising residents to closely follow the various alerts from the authorities, because “the situation is changing rapidly”.
Region devoid of vegetation
Authorities have forecast up to 20 centimeters of rain in 24 hours in the area, on hills already saturated with water from storms in recent days. Enough to make the city, surrounded by mountains largely weakened by a fire five years ago, extremely vulnerable to landslides.
In 2017-2018, a large fire ravaged around 1,100 km2 in the surrounding area. The area is therefore deprived of vegetation that usually stabilizes the soil.
Monday’s evacuation order comes five years after 23 people died in heavy rains that triggered mudslides in the city.
In Montecito, where actors Rob Lowe, Larry David, Gwyneth Paltrow and singer Katy Perry also reside, residents were evacuating their homes but it was still unclear how many had followed the evacuation order. Spokespersons for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not respond to a request for comment.
Police roadblocks and flooded roads
Roadblocks had been erected by the police to prevent anyone from entering the city where several roads were completely flooded, noted an AFP journalist.
“Over the past 30 days, Montecito has experienced between 12 and 20 inches (30 and 50 cm, editor’s note) of rain depending on the location, well beyond our annual average of 17 inches (43 cm, editor’s note)”, have reminded the firefighters on Twitter. “This cumulative rain puts the community at greater risk of flooding and mudslides.”
On Monday, TV host Ellen DeGeneres, who also lives in Montecito, posted a video to Twitter showing a torrent of raging muddy water.
“It’s crazy,” she said alarmed. “That creek next to our house absolutely never flows.”
“We need to be more considerate of Mother Nature, because Mother Nature is not happy with us,” she added.
“The worst ahead of us”
The area was not the only one to be evacuated on Monday, in the face of the series storms which are currently sweeping through California and have already claimed more than 12 lives.
In Santa Cruz County, near San Francisco, where a pier was destroyed last week, more than 30,000 residents are also affected by an evacuation order.
Several regions have experienced near-record rainfall in recent days. The ground is completely saturated with water and the US Weather Service (NWS) has issued flood warnings over large parts of California.
In the center of the state, the models predict, for example, up to 13 centimeters of precipitation on Monday, on soils already completely saturated with water. And the rain should continue on Tuesday.
“Two major episodes of heavy rain and snow are expected in California back-to-back over the next two days,” the NWS said.
Flood
“We expect the worst is still ahead of us,” California Governor Gavin Newsom, who declared a state of emergency last week, told reporters on Sunday.
In the evening, nearly 80,000 homes were without electricity, according to the specialized site PowerOutage.
While it is difficult to establish a direct link between these storms and climate change, scientists regularly explain that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
Last week’s storm had already knocked out power to tens of thousands of people, caused heavy flooding and triggered landslides. It had come just days after another deluge of rain on New Year’s Eve.
However, the exceptional rains of the last few days will not be enough to replenish water reserves in California, which has been hard hit by drought for two decades. Several winters of above-normal rainfall would be necessary for this, according to experts.
