I spoke with debris flow evacuees and Jeff Nolan, the @sccounty geologist today.

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2021/01/26/debris-flow-risk-rain-begins-as-evacuees-seek-shelter/

THREAD

Chris Mann, who had a work-stay living type situation before the CZU Fire, is unhoused. When I spoke with him, he wasn't sure where he would camp out tonight.

Red Cross supplied Mann with two blankets, but according to Mann the organization would not provide him with a hotel voucher. “I can find something…but not inside,” Mann told me.

Others we're challenged with accommodations, too, like Boulder Creek resident Ralph Pilland.

Pilland’s wife has health issues, which makes evacuating more complicated.

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.

The couple planned to go back to their home, if they couldn’t secure a hotel voucher.

“If we don’t get a [hotel] 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.”

County Geologist Jeff Nolan was anxious about the forthcoming storm.

“There’s always that little thought in the back of your head like ‘did I forget something, did I miss something,’ ” Nolan said, who's worked tirelessly since the fire mapping burn scar areas.

“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.

So how will authorities know if a debris flow does occur overnight?

1) if it's big enough, they expect a 9-1-1 call, or call-ins.

2) if it's smaller, they will know after the storm, by monitoring flow gauges, cameras and other instruments, and by field inspections.

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.”

Boulder Creek resident Elisha McKeown said she and her 6 children were sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags, or on the couch, at a friend’s house in Watsonville. McKeown was also evacuated in the CZU Complex &her and her family have been camping in tents since the blaze.

“The fire and now this…it rips families up,” she said.

“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?”

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.”

follow the @scsentinel for more on debris flows. I'll be here for the next few hours, and then back again very early in the morning. Stay safe everyone.