A California community that’s home to quite a few celebrities — including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Oprah Winfrey, and Ellen DeGeneres — was placed under an evacuation order Monday as a powerful storm battered the region.
An area fire protection district in Santa Barbara County called for the evacuation of Montecito, because the affluent seaside community faces flooding and mudslides in the newest of a series of storms to hit the Golden State.
In neighboring San Luis Obispo County, a 5-year-old boy was swept away by the raging floodwaters. The teenager had been in a automobile along with his mother, who was rescued by bystanders.
The seek for the missing boy was called off Monday afternoon.
The evacuation order in Montecito comes exactly five years after a deadly mudslide killed 23 people and destroyed greater than 100 homes in the rich community. The Montecito fire district said the order was in place “as a consequence of threats of life safety attributable to the continued storm.”
DeGeneres, in a video she tweeted out Monday, said she was only required to shelter in place because she is on higher ground. She showed raging floodwaters pouring down a creek that she says often never flows.
“We should be nicer to Mother Nature because Mother Nature’s not glad with us,” the comedian and TV host said. “Let’s all do our part. Stay secure, everybody.”
Montecito is home to millionaires and billionaires, with no shortage of celebrities boasting homes in the realm.
Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle relocated to Montecito in 2020 after leaving the UK. The Duke of Sussex has been within the news recently for his recent memoir that is anticipated to hit bookstores Tuesday.
Other celebs with Montecito homes include Oprah, Jennifer Aniston, who bought a $14.8 million piece of property from Oprah in September, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rob Lowe, and Adam Levine.
The National Weather Service estimated at the least 8 inches of rain has fallen thus far with several more inches expected as the realm faces heavy downpours.
One homeowner said she was trapped with an overflowing creek on one side and a mudslide on the opposite.
“As of two hours ago, I’m trapped,” said Jamie McLead, 60. “I can’t get off the mountain.”
The owner of the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary said considered one of her staff dropped off food at her home.
The variety of deaths tied to the bruising storms has increased from 12 to 14, officials said Monday. The brand new deaths were as a consequence of falling trees that killed two people.
The boy who was swept away by flooding has not been declared dead, an official said, however the seek for him stopped around 3 p.m. He and his mother were traveling in a white truck around 8 a.m. when it became stuck within the rising water, said Tom Swanson, the assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.
The mother was pulled to safety, however the boy was swept out of the vehicle and carried away downstream, Swanson said. A firefighter found considered one of the boy’s shoes, however the child remained missing.
The search was stopped since the water levels posed an excessive amount of of a risk for divers, based on officials. However the search could restart if it becomes secure to achieve this, said Tony Cipolla, a spokesperson for the county sheriff’s office, based on the Los Angeles Times.
There was no evacuation order on the time of the incident.
In other parts of the region, about 32,000 residents received evacuation orders in Santa Cruz County. Many highways and roads, including northbound lanes of US 101, a vital coastal route, were closed.
Several Northern California schools were closed, with tens of 1000’s still without power in Sacramento.
President Biden issued an emergency declaration Monday to assist the storm response and ensuing relief for greater than a dozen counties.
With Post wires
