With the National Weather Service warning of (caps theirs) “DANGEROUS LIFE THREATENING FLASH FLOODING across southern Santa Barbara county,” Montecito homeowner Ellen DeGeneres put her own exclamation point of sorts on the situation, posting a video of herself with a raging torrent just over her shoulder and in it remarked, “This stream next to our house never flows, ever. It’s probably about nine feet up. It could go another two feet up. We have horses ready to evacuate.”
She wrote in the caption to the post, “Montecito is under mandatory evacuation. We are on higher ground so they asked us to shelter in place.”
DeGeneres made reference to the deadly floods and related mudslides that struck Montecito five years ago to the day, killing 23.
“This is crazy, on the five year anniversary. We’re having unprecedented rain.”
DeGeneres is not the only longtime resident of the leafy enclave in southern Santa Barbara. Oprah, Gwyneth Paltrow, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Drew Barrymore, Jeff Bridges, Rob Lowe, Malcolm McDowell, Al Gore, Megyn Price, Eric Schmidt, Jane Seymour, Patrick Stewart and Kathy Ireland have also been residents.
Not long after DeGeneres posted the video, local emergency officials announced that the 101 is now closed at multiple points, effectively cutting off traffic going northbound into Santa Barbara and also traffic going Northbound out of the county. A declaration of a state of emergency is likely soon, said another, with a “signed declaration of emergency being presented to supervisors” shortly.