Future floods will be in mind as California town rebuilds
After power and drinking water return, and cleanup crews haul away the last of the boulders and muck that splintered homes like a battering ram, the wealthy seaside hideaway of Montecito, California, will start rebuilding with the possibility of another catastrophic flood in mind.
Though parts of the town of about 9,000 were spared, the debris flows levelled entire blocks as they killed at least 20 people last week. Sewer lines were ruptured, fire hydrants sheared off, power lines downed.
While an aggressive cleanup could mean Montecito will welcome visitors again in weeks, the rebuilding of infrastructure and hundreds of homes will be measured in months and years. It offers a chance to reimagine aspects of a town that has favoured slow growth over the runaway development closer to Los Angeles, 145 kilometres down the coast.
Telephone and electrical lines could be moved from poles to underground conduits. A microgrid for solar power would increase self-sufficiency.
Also looming are questions about how to protect the town against future disaster. Is it time to install culverts and storm drains to siphon floods like other Southern California cities have built? Or to require that properties capture storm water for future use rather than let it cascade to the Pacific Ocean?
“Unfortunately, it takes a tragedy like this to have an opportunity to” harden a place against the next disaster, said Sheldon Yellen, CEO of disaster recovery firm Belfor Property Restoration. “You can pretty well bet that they will all be looking at every way possible.”
More ambitious proposals would run up against twin realities: major infrastructure costs major money and Montecito has traditionally favoured a natural esthetic to maintain its character.
Even in high-cost coastal California, the unincorporated community stands apart. A home is far more likely to sell for more than US$10 million than under $1 million. It sits on the “American Riviera,” an area around Santa Barbara known for its Mediterranean climate and architecture reflecting its Spanish colonial past.
Montecito means “little mountain” in Spanish, and it was the foothills of the coastal range that crowd the town toward the ocean that gave way early last Tuesday. Recently burned by California’s largest recorded wildfire, the hillside couldn’t absorb a heavy rainstorm punctuated by an epic downpour of nearly an inch in just 15 minutes.
The resulting torrents of mud, boulders and uprooted trees deposited several brown veins at least 100 yards wide through leafy green neighbourhoods.
More than 60 homes were destroyed and more than 450 others damaged, Santa Barbara County officials said.