The phrase “the new normal” has been so overused in the past 10 years it’s almost become a form of linguistic abuse. There are certain situations, however, where the phrase fits the bill. Three evacuations within a three-month period seems to be one of them. Since the Thomas Fire broke out on December 4, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown has emerged as the South Coast’s de facto Evacuator-in-Chief. Since his first election in 2006, Brown has presided over more evacuations now than he can remember or count. Little wonder that he’s inclined to pepper his remarks in press conferences with references to "the new normal.”
At a press conference this Wednesday about whether mandatory evacuations would soon be ordered in anticipation of Thursday night’s rainstorm — they were — Brown suggested that evacuations might have just become a routine fact of life along the South Coast for the next two to five years. That, he philosophized, might be the price of living in a place “so beautiful.”
Beauty may lie in the eye of the beholder; debris flows are inclined to hit you right between the eyes, assuming you sit still long enough to behold them. Evacuations for the January 9 flood and debris flows — which killed 23 — adhered to plans concocted in 2009 in response to the Jesusita Fire. Those plans focused on the demarcation line of State Route 192. Debris flows follow drainage channels and creeks, not street grids. Brown has since tossed out that playbook and adopted a new creek-based evacuation plan.
