It created a lot of concern, and prompted tens of thousands of evacuations, but the winter storm which hit the Central and South Coast fortunately didn’t cause major damage.
The storm totals ranged from about a half inch, in some coastal areas like Santa Barbara, to more than three inches in some local mountains.
San Marcos Pass recorded 3.5” of rain, there was 2.4” at KCLU’s tower on Gibraltar Peak above Montecito, and Santa Paula Creek in Ventura County had 2.9” of rain.
The mandatory evacuations for the Thomas, Whittier, and Sherpa brush fires which took effect at 6 Thursday night were canceled at nine Friday morning. Highway 101 didn't have to close, but Highway 33 was shut down north of Ojai Friday by debris on the roadway.
Public works officials said before the storm that they had cleared debris basins in hard hit Montecito to 92% of their capacity, and those basins, along with cleared creek channels were able to handle the flow from the latest storm.
