The Central Coast has caught its fair share of storms these past few weeks, with Santa Maria racking up 6.58 inches of rainfall so far in January, according to the county's official daily rainfall record.
Jan. 19 through 23 accounted for nearly a third of the month's total rainfall, during which the county suffered storm damage, and the National Weather Service issued an evacuation warning. Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed states of emergency in 50 counties across the state, including Santa Barbara County.
The heavy rains have taken some of the edge off the California drought. Where 43 percent of the state was in "exceptional drought" one year ago—and 21 percent in exceptional drought only three months ago—now, only a little more than 2 percent of California is currently categorized as such by the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Santa Barbara is one of the four California counties still experiencing exceptional drought. But local reservoirs are finding some relief. According to the county's reservoir summary, as of Jan. 23, the Gibraltar Reservoir had filled by 4,147 acre-feet in the past month, landing it at 82 percent storage capacity. Lake Cachuma's storage had increased by 5,321 acre-feet in the past month and now stands at 11 percent capacity.
But when heavy rains fall on drought-stricken areas, danger accompanies the relief. El Capitan Canyon resort was evacuated due to flooding, and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office rescued 19 people from the site. The National Weather Service issued an evacuation warning for the Sherpa Fire area from 4 a.m. on Jan. 22 to 6 p.m. the following day. It also issued flash flood warnings, which were lifted on Jan. 23.
Falling trees took down power poles and lines around the county, closing roads. On Jan. 22, a cliff and balcony collapse in Isla Vista displaced 15 to 20 residents, according to Santa Barbara County Fire Department's public information officer, Dave Zaniboni. No one was injured.
