Written by Erica Urich and Steve Gorman

MONTECITO, Calif. (Reuters) – Storms in the Pacific Ocean were responsible for at least 12 deaths in California on Monday, forcing the evacuation of about 25,000 people, including the entire town of Montecito and areas near the Santa Barbara coast. increased risk of floods and landslides.

The evacuation zone in Montecito was among 17 in California where authorities fear a series of heavy rains since late December will unleash deadly waterfalls of mud, rocks and other debris into hillsides stripped by past wildfires.

The mandatory evacuations came five years after mudslides caused by torrential rains recently pummeled the fire-ravaged cliffs and canyons around Montecito, a affluent coastal region 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, causing widespread damage and killing more than 20 people. in January 2018.

Sheriff’s deputies were cruising the flooded roads in high-purity SWAT Bearcat armored vehicles to rescue residents trapped by rising waters, Raquel Zec, a Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokesman, told Reuters.

Among Montecito’s 9,000 residents, many of them luxury homes in the picturesque town, are celebrities such as media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan.

It was not immediately clear if they were among those forced to flee the area. It was known that Winfrey was in Hawaii during the New Year holidays.

Famed Montecito resident comedian Ellen DeGeneres posted a selfie video to Twitter of herself standing in the rain next to a flooded torrent flowing through what she described as a usually dry creek bed near her property.

Mother Nature is not happy

The artist, who was wearing a hooded jacket, tweeted that she was advised to “take shelter where he is” rather than evacuate because her home was on higher ground.

“We need to be kinder to Mother Nature, because Mother Nature is not happy with us,” she said in the video. “Let’s all do our part. Stay safe, everyone. Yeah.”

The Montecito Fire Department said all 15 of Montecito’s counties were ordered to evacuate immediately, along with parts of the city of Santa Barbara and nearby areas in Carpinteria and Summerland where “burn scars” posed a mudslide hazard.

A social media video posted by TMZ.com showed a man paddling a kayak in the middle of a flooded street in Santa Barbara. The Los Angeles Times reported that many roads were closed due to flooding and debris flows, including portions of US Highway 101 in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Along the Central California coast, about 14,000 people were ordered evacuated early Monday from four Santa Cruz County communities inundated by flash flooding, extreme tides and runoff from local mountains, said Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

Nearly 4,000 other people in the town of Wilton remained under evacuation orders due to flood threats from breached levees along the Kusumnis River south of Sacramento, the state capital. Ferguson said another 42,000 residents of nearly a dozen counties were under evacuation warnings.

The heavy rains, along with heavy snow in the mountain regions, were the product of another “atmospheric river” of intense moisture funneled into California from the equatorial Pacific, buoyed by sprawling low-pressure systems churning offshore.

At least 12 deaths have been attributed to several consecutive storms hitting California since Dec. 26, including a young child who was killed when a redwood tree blew over his family’s trailer home last week.

Experts say the frequency and intensity of such storms, which are punctuated by severe dry spells, are symptoms of climate change, posing greater challenges for managing California’s precious water supply while reducing the risk of floods, mudslides and wildfires.

The six storms shortly after Christmas were accompanied by waves that battered coastal communities, as well as gale-force winds that uprooted thousands of trees weakened by a prolonged drought.

The National Weather Service (NWS) warned that the latest onslaught will affect most of California’s 39 million residents, with up to 5 inches of additional rain expected near the coast and more than a foot of snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains over the next day. some days.

High winds wreaked havoc on the state’s power grid, leaving tens of thousands of Californians without power. As many as 120,000 homes and businesses were without power Monday morning, according to Poweroutage.us data.

US President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration authorizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate disaster relief efforts and mobilize emergency resources in California.