Seventeen storms, 32 inches of rain on the mountainside, and three large-scale evacuations have kept South Coast residents on edge this winter, especially below the burn scar of the Thomas Fire.
Since the rains began in mid-November, county crews have cleaned out the debris basins in Montecito and Carpinteria nine times, carting away about 11,000 truckloads of mud, boulders and fallen trees that have washed down the canyons and into the urban area. The cleanup has cost the county $2.6 million.
To catch even more debris in future storms, vowing that “we can’t do nothing,” the Partnership for Resilient Communities, a nonprofit group founded by wealthy Montecitans, has raised $4.4 million and is looking for $1 million more to install six steel-wire, fence-like “ring” nets across Cold Spring, San Ysidro and Buena Vista creeks by mid-May. Test soil drilling is expected to begin next week.