Santa Barbara County proclaimed a local emergency on Jan. 27 after winter storms hit the Central Coast from Jan. 19 through 24. The proclamation estimates nearly $7 million in damages to public and private property in the county, though officials are still determining the final number.
According to Jefferson Litten, chief of staff for Board of Supervisors Chair Joan Hartmann, the board will vote on whether to ratify the proclamation at a special meeting on Feb. 2. If ratified, the proclamation will go to the governor’s office for review, and the state may reimburse the county for damage to public infrastructure.
“This was a particularly devastating storm,” Litten told the Sun. “This emergency proclamation will be the first step so that we might receive funding from the state to help cover the costs of repair for some of the repairs to public infrastructure.”
He added that the state would not cover any private property damages.
California defines a “local emergency” as “a duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons or property within the territorial limits of a county, city and county, or city.”
The proclamation states that starting Jan. 19, a series of storms began impacting the county and causing conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the county.
According to a press release from the county, the storm system caused high winds, substantial precipitation, flash flooding, mud debris and flows, and coastal erosion. The storms caused severe damage to both private and public property including roads, highways, and critical infrastructure, the release stated.
Specific damages included:
• A historic adobe in Las Flores Canyon.
• Twenty-two vehicles.
• Seven tiny-home cabins.
• One outhouse trailer.
• Multiple apartments in Isla Vista, displacing 35 UC Santa Barbara students.
• Properties located near the bluff erosion.
• Outside patio areas on numerous properties.
The proclamation is in effect for seven days unless the county supervisors vote to ratify and extend it, which they are expected to do at their Feb. 2 meeting.
This article appears in Feb 2-9, 2017.