Geological Survey, estimated that a quarter inch of rain in 15 minutes, or half an inch in 30 minutes, is enough to trigger mudslides in the burned areas of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The National Weather Service, working with geologists from the U.S. Three years ago, in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, a mudslide one month after the Thomas Fire killed 23 people and destroyed 65 homes. “As tragic as it was, it will hopefully serve as a lesson now to prevent something similar from happening again.” A computer weather model image shows the expected track of the storm early Wednesday morning, Jan. “People do remember Love Creek,” Hoppin said. Four victims, including two children, were never found and remain buried there. The horrific slide destroyed 30 houses, killing 10 people. 5, 1982, following torrential rains, a steep hillside collapsed at Love Creek, a tributary of the San Lorenzo River in the redwoods near Ben Lomond.

The area knows deadly mudslides firsthand.

Where is the power out and when will it be restored?.

Map of the Santa Cruz Mountains evacuation zones.

I couldn’t stress more the need to follow the evacuation order.” Evacuation, power outage and storm tracker maps “Make sure you are as safe as you can be. “This is a storm we were hoping we weren’t going to see,” said Chris Clark, chief deputy sheriff in Santa Cruz County. On Monday, 31 sheriff’s deputies fanned out across the Santa Cruz Mountains, knocking on doors and telling people in danger zones to leave. Homes near steep slopes that burned are most at risk from debris flows, commonly called mudslides, which can send thousands of tons of soil, trees, rocks and other debris down hills in seconds, said Jason Hoppin, a spokesman for Santa Cruz County. Hilary Stanley places things in her trunk while evacuating in Boulder Creek, Calif., on Monday, Jan. Bathrooms, charging stations, food and Red Cross workers will be available. Santa Cruz County set up temporary emergency access points at three locations: San Lorenzo Valley High School in Felton, Pacific Elementary School in Davenport and Scotts Valley Community Center, at 360 Kings Village Road in Scotts Valley.

People who evacuate probably will be able to return by this weekend, he said.

The orders were posted on a county map at When it occurs, if you hear it, it is too late.” “We ask you to heed these warnings and get out of the way,” said Ian Larkin, chief of Cal Fire’s San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit. On Monday morning, Cal Fire and sheriff’s officials in Santa Cruz County issued evacuation orders for 2,800 homes with nearly 5,000 residents in parts of Felton, Ben Lomond, Brookdale, Boulder Creek, the Swanton area north of Davenport along Highway 1, and other rural communities in the Santa Cruz Mountains where the CZU Lightning Complex Fire burned 86,509 acres last August, destroying 1,490 buildings, including homes and businesses from Bonny Doon to Big Basin Redwoods State Park. “It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen a storm like this.” “There’s going to be a lot more moisture than we had thought,” said Matt Mehle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. By comparison, San Jose has received 1.2 inches of rain since July 1 Oakland, 2.4 inches and San Francisco 3.2 inches. The National Weather Service said that as the storm has moved closer, revised forecasts call for it to dump 3 to 5 inches of rain on Bay Area cities, mostly Wednesday and Thursday 5 to 8 inches at higher elevations up to 10 inches in some parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains and up to 13 inches in Big Sur. A powerful atmospheric river storm barreling toward the Bay Area and Central Coast is expected to drench the region starting Tuesday night with more rain than earlier anticipated, forecasters say, raising the risk of power outages, downed trees and potentially deadly mudslides in the days ahead.Įvacuation orders were already underway Monday for about 5,000 people in the Santa Cruz Mountains, an ominous beginning to what could be one of the wettest weeks in years.

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