The official Santa Barbara County Twitter account advised residents of the community to head to safety and later followed up with a second tweet that included expanded evacuation guidelines and a shelter-in-place order for nearby neighborhoods. TV host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, live in Montecito, and the 64-year-old shared footage showing the flooding as they sheltered in place. In a video posted to Instagram, DeGeneres showed a creek near her house, which she said “never flows,” raging behind her. She said, “This is crazy. We are having unprecedented rain. This creek next to our house never flows, ever. It’s probably about nine feet up, and it’s going to go up another two feet.” DeGeneres continued: “We need to be nicer to Mother Nature because Mother Nature’s not happy with us. Let’s all do our part. Stay safe, everybody.” The comedian also noted that this is the fifth anniversary of the 2018 Montecito mudslides that killed 23 people, as reported by KTLA. Now, the town is facing a similarly life-threatening situation and hoping to stop the same thing from happening again. DeGeneres wrote in the caption of the video, “Montecito is under mandatory evacuation. We are on higher ground so they asked us to shelter in place. Please stay safe everyone.” The comments are filled with people telling DeGeneres to stay safe and be careful. Shortly after the initial evacuation and shelter-in-place orders were issued, Santa Barbara County also tweeted alerts warning residents of several highway closures, the temporary shutdown of the Santa Barbara Airport, and notifying parents that all Santa Barbara public schools will be closed Tuesday, Jan. 10. The National Weather Service Los Angeles division is also keeping people updated on its website and social media–sharing rainfall records, travel conditions, and related advisories. According to predictions by the Los Angeles Times, heavy rain, damaging winds and threats of flooding, mud and debris flows are forecast to sweep the area through tomorrow, with San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties expected to be hit the hardest.
