RAIN BEGINS: EVACUEES SEEK SAFETY, SHELTER
Evacuations: Some 5,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate
FELTON >> As raindrops began to fall Tuesday afternoon in Felton, cars lined up on Highway 9, filled with families and their belongings, fleeing potential debris flows in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Some 5,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the North Coast. OnTuesday afternoon, Cal Fire issued additional evacuations warnings for the Last Chance Road community.
Evacuees pulled in to San Lorenzo Valley High School, where Red Cross has set up a temporary evacuation center. While none of the evacuation centers are offering overnight accommodations, residents are allowed to sleep in their car, or other type of car-camping set ups.
For some, though, that’s not an option. Chris Mann lost his housing after the CZU Lightning Complex fire and has been camping near Covered Bridge Road.
Red Cross supplied Mann with two blankets, but according to Mann the organization would not provide him with a hotel voucher. When asked where he would stay during the storm, Mann said he would camp.
“I can find something… but not inside,” Mann said.
Other evacuees were also having challenges finding accommodations. Ralph Pilland and his wife live near the Boulder Creek Community Church and were put under evacuation orders because of debris flow risk. They also evacuated this past summer in the CZU Lightning Complex fire.
“We’re worried about being blocked in because just south of us is a burned cliff side, and we could be trapped there for a while,” Pilland said.
Pilland’s wife has health issues, which makes evacuating more complicated.
“Not only could we be trapped there and not able to get food, but the power is out, and the place doesn’t have a wood stove,” he said.
The couple was also attempting to get a hotel voucher from Red Cross. Pilland said he and his family signed a refusal waiver, provided by Santa Cruz County sheriff’s, because without assistance the cost of a hotel room is too much financial burden.
“If we don’t get a voucher by tonight, we’re not going any place,” Pilland said. “Have you seen the rent for motel rooms in Santa Cruz? You might get a really good salary, but I don’t, my wife doesn’t. We need the vouchers.”
The couple planned to go back to their home, if they couldn’t secure a hotel voucher.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Pilland’s youngest son was intent on staying in their Boulder Creek home, despite evacuation orders.
“I’m going to have to make runs to make sure he gets supplies in and out,” Pilland said. “I’m feeling anxiety, I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”
“I’m hoping that people follow the evacuation orders,” Jeff Nolan, Santa Cruz County geologist said. “We do run into people that simply say they’re not going to evacuate…that is in my perspective a poor choice.”
Residents who live in atrisk areas, should stay alert during the storm, follow news alerts, and prepare to evacuate if they haven’t already.
Nolan told the Sentinel that he too was feeling anxious as the storm approached.
“There’s always that little thought in the back of your head like ‘did I forget something, did I miss something,’ ” said Nolan, who since the CZU Lightning Complex fire has deeply researched the burn scar area, and assessed neighborhoods at-risk of debris flows.
“Everybody can’t help but feel a little bit of anxiety, waiting to see what’s really going to happen and hoping that everybody’s OK at the end of it,” Nolan said.
When asked how the county will know if a debris flow has actually occurred, the geologist said it will depend on how Tuesday’s storm unfolds.
“That’s a question in my own mind,” Nolan said. “I’ll be at the incident command post… and we’re expecting to get call ins from people reporting things.”
The County, U.S. Geological Survey, California Geological Survey and UC Santa Cruz researchers have set up rainfall, and stream flow gauges, as well as cameras in areas at-risk of debris flows. Those tools will give scientists insight into whether or not a debris flow, small or large, occurs during the storm.
“The plan is not to have anybody up in the critical areas during the rainstorm, everybody’s gonna pull back as much as possible during the actual event,” Nolan said. “Then we’ll come in afterwards… doing field survey and acting on any trickle of info that comes in on any debris flow event.”
Since the Santa Cruz region hasn’t seen an intense and widespread fire such as the CZU Lightning Complex in modern history, Tuesday’s storm will test how fire-scarred mountains react to rainfall.
“We don’t really know what’s going to happen, we have some ideas, we have some models that make predictions, but as with most things it will come down to the actual event,” Nolan said. “We’re bound to learn stuff.”
That knowledge, will help authorities craft more precise evacuation orders in the future, Nolan said.
Still, for a community still weary from last summer’s fire-induced trauma, Tuesday’s storm weighed heavy on many.
Boulder Creek resident Elisha McKeown said she and her six children were sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags, or on the couch, at a friend’s house in Watsonville. They were evacuated for the fire during the summer, and again this week due to debris flow risk.
“It’s just kind of like a slap in the face,” McKeown said. “It’s just one thing after another, what’s going to happen after the debris flows, are we going to have another major fire?”
McKeown told the Sentinel as a result of the fire, her and her family have been camping out in tents on their property.
“The fire and now this… it rips families up,” she said.
Still, through a broken voice, holding back tears McKeown said, the Santa Cruz Mountain community is strong.
“Just pray for everybody,” McKeown said. “We are a valley that sticks together, the Santa Cruz Mountains will stay strong, we’ve always been strong and united as one.”