Anonymous
Tom Fayram, Deputy Director, County Public Works/Flood Control confirms that Santa Barbara County responded while the Thomas Fire was still burning in the hills above Montecito and Carpinteria and cleared 11 debris basins by January 5, 2018 (Watch the full video below)
Source: County of Santa Barbara
No aspects of fire or storm preparation or response, including emergency basin and channel clean outs, were restricted by budgetary or personnel constraints. We have been in constant response, preparedness and recovery since December 6, 2017. Protecting life, property and infrastructure is our first priority. If necessary, emergency reserves would be released to cover the cost of this critical work.
The County closed non-essential offices for four days between December 26-29, 2017, however critical staff and emergency or maintenance personnel were required to work or be on-call. For example, staff, contractors and mutual aid from Public Works, Office of Emergency Management, Planning & Development, Sheriff’s Office, County Fire, County Executive Office, and others continued to work between Christmas and New Year’s.
Various scientists are trying to estimate the total volume of material brought down during the Debris Flow. Some estimates are as high as 1-2 million cubic yards of debris.
As mentioned earlier, the County of Santa Barbara’s Debris Basin Maintenance Plan prescribes that a basin be cleaned when it is 25% full. It also prescribes that after a fire, they are cleaned out regardless of how full. We strictly follow this policy. In addition, the Corps is studying the area to determine options to increase creek and basin capacities, including the construction of additional basins.
Next Steps
The County has applied for several Hazard Mitigation grants to improve three of the basins: Cold Springs, San Ysidro and Romero; and also to add another basin on San Ysidro Creek. These grants are still pending.
Past Articles
December 20, 2018: New Report Indicates Santa Barbara County Did Little to Prevent Mudslides in Montecito
Flicka you are dead wrong. Literally. The government told people below 192 they didn’t need to evacuate, and they would be notified if conditions changed. Lewin made a fatal/stupid error by making 192 the boundary between mandatory and voluntary. 19 of the 23 dead were misled by the flawed evacuation order created by an ill-informed, inexperienced OEM Director. He didn’t use common sense or historical evidence prior to the rain event: debris flows will move downhill and down drainages to the ocean. Highway 192 had nothing to do with it.
No matter how deep you place them, if the ground around them moves (slides), they are going to move and very likely going to break. It doesn’t necessarily need to have debris falling on them for them to break.
Sadly, the LA Times has been going downhill long before the new ownership. Sometimes they get the facts right but many times they don’t. Very often they have an agenda. I don’t have the information to decide whether they are correct this time or not. But I’d take it with a grain of salt.
This knee jerk response ignores the decades prior to the fire that the county did practically nothing, and perhaps even worse, willfully allowed many homes to be built in clear danger while spending public funds and resources on other non-essential projects. Here we are almost 1yr later and not a single person has taken responsibility, been held accountable or at the very least, lost their job for the gross mishandling of both the basins and the evacuations. I’d prefer to see the facts and let the chips fall where they may and not listen to the very people who have the most to lose personally and professionally. One thing is very clear here: This is going to be a long, expensive and very painful process to uncover the truth and the causes of so many poor decisions over so many years.
“This knee jerk response”
That’s an appropriate characterization of your comment, but not at all of Tom Fayram’s.
spoken like a man clinging to hold on to his job. if they moved 20000 cy of material, or the equivalent of 2000 dump trucks, where are the tags for these loads? where were they deposited exactly?
JQB, You are so right! As far as critics of the evacuations, all the homes above 192 were warned to evacuate, with deputies knocking on every door. 10-15% actually evacuated. For voluntary evac, people need to take responsibility for their safety and not blame the county for not telling them it was mandatory. Even if it had been mandatory, how many do you think would have left? A flash flood warning should have been enough to wake them up to possible danger, especially if living by a creek. If the basins were all cleared after the fire, what is the gripe? Have to blame someone I guess. Heaven forbid anyone would take personal responsibility!
Nice to see the system offer correct information to rebut the simple and opportunistic yellow journalism. The LA Times has really become a sensationalist journal in its attempt to garner readership under the new owner. While many of their investigative pieces are noteworthy this one should have been left in the editor’s in box.
I’d like to know what happened to the lawsuits filed against public works for the water mains breaking open and dumping 34,000 tons of water in 15 minutes right in the middle of the storm that triggered mudslides
But when was the last time Los Padres was raked for pine needles?
Good luck trying to keep anyone from building in fire prone areas when they own the property. In fact, all areas are basically fire prone now. In 1964 I remember one home not in “fire prone” area burning because embers flew onto their roof during Santa Ana winds, well away from the actual fire. Homes on APS burned during the Sycamore fire, 1977, not typically a fire prone area. If the winds hadn’t stopped it was stated the fire would have gone to the ocean, homes and businesses in the way not in “fire prone” areas. A friend above the Mission did all the fire department suggested to make his property safe and it survived the Jesusita Fire. Neighbors all around burned down.
FLICKA, you are absolutely right! Some folks like to have it both ways. They like to complain when govt does its job and provide oversight then complain when, in hindsight, they didn’t do enough. It’s as if they just like to complain, to sensationalize or stir up discontent. But then again they are only mirroring their role model currently (temporarily) in charge of our country.
This is all a total crock. Go up to cold springs basin and there are still trees and debris in the creek 50 yards above it. In my mind, clearing a basin means clearing the pathway in. Not really doing much if it immediately fills with the crap they left
Escept for the county surveyor report that shows the basins were not cleaned out to design dimensions. Tom likes to say that the old surveying numbers must have been wrong but the technology to analyze cut and fill operations has been accepted and used for decades.
Totally agree. Many mistakes were made but the days of people owning up to them and taking responsibility are over. Wait for everyone involved to be promoted and then taking their pensions and full medical benefits into retirement so we get to pay for them the rest of our taxpaying lives.
Doesn’t really matter, anyway, the LA Times article said it was difficult to sue the County and get anything because the State has given them almost total immunity. That is why they are suing PG&E because the State hasn’t given them immunity, yet. I wondered why I hadn’t heard that any lawsuits had been filed against them. Anyway, the real lesson is that next time there is a chance that you could be in danger, don’t depend on your local government to help. Depend on your own resources because you could be on your own!
Nothing “willful” about the County’s allowing houses to be built in the high risk areas. They have to allow what the zoning ordinances allow, and I’m sure most planners and other staff would prefer that people not build at all in these areas–for sure the Fire Departments would prefer that. But hey, property rights! Don’t want the government telling me I can’t build on my land, right? Then blame the same government for not preventing me from exercising my property rights. Sigh. I remember during the big floods in a terrible El Niño year, maybe 1997-8, when people were killed in Sycamore Canyon, someone drove around the “flooded, do not cross” roadblock and tried to cross the flooded bridge at Stanwood and Sycamore Canyon in his big 4WD SUV. Car got washed away and the guy sued the County for not preventing him from being so bull-headed! It seems it’s often those who complain the most about government regulation who complain later, when the worst has occurred, that there should have been more. I’ve lived in the high fire area for more than 45 years. I accept the risks, and so do my neighbors. We couldn’t afford to move, in any case!
Personal responsibility is so 20th century. The government, Alexa, and my self driving car will take care of me. Embrace the nanny state.
The LA Times opinion on whether or not it is difficult to sue the county is hardly determinative of this (and is wrong). The county is us. We are the government. Government should not be a fat cat helping only people with huge wealth. It should protect our resources and distribute them equitably according to the wishes of all the people. If more resources are needed they should be obtained but the rich have resisted such contributions always. If we cannot depend on our local government to help in times of danger we need to change our local government, not abandon it. If we follow such advice only the wealthy will survive.
Here are the as-built design capacities in cubic yards of the debris basins above Montecito- Cold Springs: 20,000, Montecito: 5,500, San Ysidro: 11,000, Romero: 27,000, Toro Upper West: 29,000, Toro Lower West: 56,000, Toro East: 15,000, Arroyo Paredon: 24,500. The total is 188,000 cubic yards. Question for the county- what are the measured capacities of these debris basins as they stand today?
Just tried to find a report on the County’s website that Mr. Fayram was waving around in a recent interview that shows all 11 basins were cleared to design dimensions prior to Jan 9. It does not show up in a Google search and is not on the Public Works homepage. They can say anything they like in a press release, but show me a report with surveyor calcs to show that they did what they were supposed to.
Dead wrong Flicka. People below 192 relied on authorities to properly inform them. They were told they didn’t need to leave the area, and that they would be informed if conditions changed. They were actively misled. It’s callous of you to expect others to be post-fire hydrology experts (like you?) when they rely on county experts to know what they’re doing. It doesn’t matter if they would’ve heeded the warning. The fact is they weren’t given the (mandatory) warning. 19 people died because they trusted the evacuation warning. Blaming them for not being an expert like you is flat out wrong!
It goes back to the fact that they used a “fire evacuation map” to determine “flood evacuation”. Water doesn’t move like a fire. It follows gravity, not the wind and fuel. The brain trust (known as Sheriff, County CEO, and Fayram) made this brilliant decision. Actually it was the Undersheriff as Bill Brown decided to be elsewhere during the decision making phases. Fayram should be fired, as well as a few others. No accountability.
“No accountability”???? The property owners who neglected the creeks and plants along their lands are numero uno accountable. Pointing the finger at some other person or agency is absurd. If they can show that they asked and were told over decades that they did not have to do anything I might change this opinion.
The “Brains” and their inept media communications staff failed to release footage of past floods, with boulder destruction of 70 homes to inform people of pending peril. County staff and our elected Sheriff failed us all by not adequately communicating what was historically known, failing to enlarge and clear basins of oak trees and all vegetation, failing to update and use flood versus fire maps, and praising themselves and one another at every opportunity. Their behavior sickening to watch.