Deadly rains in Southern California send rivers of mud into homes, trigger fire, flooding

Chaos swept California’s Santa Barbara County on Tuesday after a powerful overnight storm hammered the region with heavy rains, leading to the deaths of at least five people and triggering multiple water rescues, authorities said.

Among the hardest hit places has been Montecito, a wealthy community sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean to the south and the Santa Ynez Mountains to the north, where “massive” runoff sent mud and debris slamming into homes, said Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason.

The circumstances surrounding the deaths in Santa Barbara County were not immediately known, but were connected to the storm, local sheriff’s and fire officials said.

Eliason said debris ruptured a gas line in one neighborhood in Montecito, causing an unknown number of structure fires. Crews have found it difficult to reach the origin because of blocked roadways.

He told The Weather Channel that at least eight people have been rescued overnight from homes in Santa Barbara County. In one instance, a 14-year-old girl was saved from a “tangled mess of a house” that was swept away by raging floodwaters, Eliason said.