Order to evacuate California town where Enrique and Meghan reside

Montecito, home to about 9,000 and a haunt of celebrities including Oprah Winfrey and Jennifer Aniston, is expected to receive about 200 millimeters of rain in 24 hours, on hillsides already inundated by weeks of downpours.

Emergency authorities in the city located 90 minutes from Los Angeles urged to leave the area.

“LEAVE NOW! This is a rapidly evolving situation. Pay close attention to emergency alerts,” the fire department said on its website.

The multimillion-dollar estate city is especially vulnerable to landslides, sitting at the foot of a mountain range that was the scene of a fire five years ago that tore through hundreds of square miles, stripping the slopes of vegetation that normally supports the soil. sign.

An AFP journalist said police checkpoints had been put in place to prevent people from entering the city, with several streets flooded. Residents were leaving the area.

Former host Ellen DeGeneres posted a video on Twitter of a raging creek. “This is crazy,” she told her followers.

“The creek by our house never flows. It’s probably about nine feet (2.7 meters) high, and it’s going to go up another two feet (more than half a meter).”

It was not clear how many of the town’s residents, who also include Larry David, Gwyneth Paltrow, Katy Perry and Rob Lowe, complied with the order to evacuate.

The Montecito evacuation order came as California is battered by a series of storms that have already killed 12 people.

Warnings have been issued for several regions of the so-called Golden State that has been suffering from the incessant rainfall in recent weeks.

“Two major torrential rain events and heavy snowfall from the mountains are expected to affect California in rapid succession over the next two days in connection with two of the most energetic and moisture-laden cyclones heading directly toward California,” the Service said. National Weather Service (NWS).

The rains will continue this Tuesday, bathing the dry portion of the south of the state, while the Sierra Nevada mountains could receive up to 1.8 meters of snow.

Governor Gavin Newsom announced a state of emergency last week.

“We believe the worst is yet to come,” Newsom told reporters.

The governor had asked on Sunday for an emergency presidential order for his state, something that Joe Biden approved on Monday, when some 80,000 remained without electricity.

“The cumulative effect of successive torrential rains will lead to further flooding,” the weather service warned.

“This includes rapidly rising water, landslides, and the possibility of large river floods. Sensitive land and areas close to recent fires will be most at risk from debris flows and swift currents.”

While it’s not unusual to see heavy rain in California during the winter, the current rainfall follows an intense drought that parched the western United States for more than two decades, also leading to a large increase in wildfires, both in number and intensity. .

Scientists say that these drastic changes in the climate, with more intense rains and droughts, are the product of climate change.

In San Francisco, storms last week left two dead and thousands without power.

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