A storm headed to the Central and South Coasts is creating concern about the potential for debris flows and flash flooding in Santa Barbara County’s Alisal brush fire burn area.
The nearly 17,000 acre fire is 97% contained as of Friday night. It burned from the Santa Ynez Mountain range down to the ocean on parts of the Gaviota coastline.
National Weather Service meteorologists say the storm could drop one to two inches of rain in the area, with the heaviest rainfall between four and eight a.m. Monday. At this point, rainfall rates aren’t expected to be high enough to trigger major slides.
Mark Jackson, with the National Weather Service says with the burn area having no recovery time, it doesn’t take much to have problems with rain hitting the slopes.
Jackson talks about key safety issues in the burn area. He says if evacuation orders are issues, people should leave immediately. He also says during the storm, people should stay off the roads in the burn zone mountain and canyon areas, because they will be especially susceptible to slides and flooding.
There’s an evacuation warning in place (as of 6 p.m. Friday) for the area west of Las Flores Canyon, east of Mariposa Reina, South of West Camino Cielo, and down to the Pacific Ocean.
Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig says they will have a number of resources deployed in, and around the burn area when the storm arrives. They include four wheel drive trucks and water rescue units.
Meteorologists say the heaviest rainfall from this storm will hit Northern California. Parts of the Central Coast could get three inches. They say we’ll know more about the rainfall totals, and timing of the storm as we move through the weekend.