Residents in the seaside California community which is home to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their children have been ordered to evacuate as another powerful storm hit the state.
A five-year-old boy was swept away by floodwaters on Monday on the state’s central coast, though he was not officially declared dead, while two people were fatally struck by falling trees to take the death toll from 12 to 14.
Tens of thousands of people remained without power and some schools closed for the day as streets and highways transformed into gushing rivers, trees toppled, mud slid and motorists growled through roadblocks caused by fallen debris.
A roughly seven-hour search for the missing boy turned up only his shoe before officials called it off as water levels were too dangerous for divers, officials said.
The boy has not been declared dead, said spokesperson Tony Cipolla of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy’s mother was driving a truck when it became stranded in floodwaters just before 8am (4pm UK) near Paso Robles, a small city inland from California’s central coast, according to Tom Swanson, assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.
Bystanders were able to pull the mother out of the truck, but the boy was swept out of the vehicle and downstream, likely into a river, Mr Swanson said. There was no evacuation order in the area at the time.
About 130 miles to the south, the entire community of Montecito and surrounding canyons scarred by recent wildfires were under an evacuation order that came on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave.
The National Weather Service reported rainfall rates of one inch per hour, with heavy downpours expected throughout the night in the upscale area where roads wind along wooded hillsides studded with large houses.
Montecito is squeezed between mountains and the Pacific and is home to celebrities including Harry and Meghan, Oprah Winfrey, Rob Lowe, Ellen Degeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said the decision to evacuate nearly 10,000 people was “based on the continuing high rate of rainfall with no indication that that is going to change before nightfall”.
Yet another surge of moisture will inundate #California on #Tuesday for more heavy rain and flooding. A moderate threat (level 3 out of 4) for excessive rain and #flooding covers a large chunk of southern California, including the Los Angeles metro area. #TurnAroundDontDrown pic.twitter.com/BJg4pGfbyz
Advertisement— National Weather Service (@NWS) January 9, 2023
Creeks were overflowing and many roads were flooded.
President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration on Monday to support storm response and relief efforts in more than a dozen counties.
The weather service issued a flood watch for a large portion of Northern and Central California, with 6 to 12 inches of rain expected through Wednesday in the already saturated Sacramento-area foothills.
In the Los Angeles area, there was potential for as much as 8 inches of rain in foothill areas late on Monday and Tuesday. High surf was also expected.
Much of California remains in severe to extreme drought, though the storms have helped fill depleted reservoirs.
