As fierce rains pounded Southern California, homes were swept away, roads were overwhelmed and widespread rescues forced homeowners to reckon with yet another major disaster.
After the fires devastated Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, hundreds of residents were now under mandatory evacuation orders from the floods and mudslides that endangered their homes. At least 13 people died and many more were missing in the chaos as residents fled storm-ravaged areas that had been made vulnerable because of the fires.
Heavy rains triggered “massive” runoff in Montecito, said Santa Barbara County Fire spokesman Mike Eliason. Firefighters rescued a 14-year-old girl who’d been trapped for hours in the mud-covered ruins of a Montecito home, and multiple rescues were underway from vehicles and structures. Scores of sheriff deputies and other first responders raced door-to-door to aid evacuees. Helicopters, rescue dogs and swift-water rescue teams were pressed into service as trees and electrical wires tumbled in the storm. And crews were struggling to reopen highways across much of the region.
The Thomas Fire, the largest in California history, burned more than 440 square miles and more than 1,000 homes, businesses and other buildings in the area last month. Then came the rains, and hillsides stripped of their vegetation by the fires were left prone to mudslides.
At Los Angeles International Airport, flooding in a customs area meant arriving international passengers had to be bused to Tom Bradley International Terminal for processing. Evacuations were ordered in parts of Burbank, where police posted video on social media of water roaring down a hillside like a river.
California’s first storm of the winter season blasted much of the state with record rainfall. San Francisco received 3.15 inches of rain Monday, breaking the same-day record set in 1872 by almost an inch. Big Sur got almost 10 inches of rain.
But the damage was most severe in the area west of Los Angeles devastated by wildfire. And more rain is coming. “A major issue will be the burn scar areas, which will be susceptible to flash floods, mudslides, and debris flows,” the National Weather Service warned.
There will soon be a sudden change in God’s dealings. The world in its perversity is being visited by casualties,—by floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, famines, wars, and bloodshed. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power; yet he will not at all acquit the wicked.” Special Testimonies on Education, page 133.