Ellen DeGeneresis giving people a look at just how dangerous the recent heavy rains have made the area of Montecito, where she and other stars likeOprahandPrince Harrylive.
“It’s probably about 9ft up, and it could go another 2ft up,” she said in the video, moving the camera to display just how powerful the water was. “We have horses ready to evacuate.”
On Monday, the area was hit with the latest round of severe storms moving throughout the state, with the National Weather Service reporting at least 8 inches of rain falling over the area over the course of 12 hours, perNBC News.
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The heavy rains and flooding prompted the Montecito fire department to issue anevacuation orderfor all Montecito residents and residents of Sycamore Canyon in Santa Barbara on Monday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom also declared a state of emergency one day earlier, noting that 12 residents have already died from flooding and other storm-related impacts over the past few weeks.
The impacts from the heavy rains are reminiscent of a similar storm that hit Montecito in January, 2018 and killed 23 people – something DeGeneres touched on in her video.
“This is the 5 year anniversary from the fire and mudslides that killed so many people and people lost their homes, their lives,” DeGeneres said. “This is crazy. On the five year anniversary, we’re having unprecedented rain.”
“We need to be nicer to mother nature cause mother nature is not happy with us,” she added. “Let’s all do our part. Stay safe everybody.”
Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Press Wire
“It’s not just a wealthy community, it’s filled with a lot of different types of people from all backgrounds. And there are families missing, there are people who are missing family members,” DeGeneres said, sharing aphotoof the street in front of her house that was filled with mud-covered debris.
“They’re finding people and bodies and I mean, you hear the word mudslide and you have no idea the impact that it has, but after the largest fire in California history, it’s catastrophic. It is beyond recognizable,” she added.
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Oprah, who also lives in Montecito, Facetimed the host sharing that she thought the damage was “devastating.”
“But we’re going to do what we do,” Oprah said. “We’re going to come together and we’re going to do what great Americans do all the time. We’re going to help each other. We’re going to help each other out wherever needed.”
source: people.com
