MONTECITO, Calif. — In the town of Montecito, where the median home costs $5 million, Bentley drivers leave their car windows open as they hop out to grab something from the market and residents refer to Gwyneth Paltrow as simply "Gwyneth," it's hard to imagine anything ever goes wrong here. And most of the time, nothing does.
But massive storms, fires and the positioning of the town in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains have resulted in a precarious existence for the mostly wealthy residents, who on Monday were ordered once again to evacuate as record-breaking rains battered the coastal enclave.
That order came on the five-year anniversary of the violent debris flow on Jan. 9, 2018, that killed 23. Traumatized by that experience half a decade ago, most of the town's 9,000 residents heeded government orders to get out. Brown waves lapped at the empty sands of the Pacific Ocean, and muddy water pooled on the streets and sidewalks of the trendy shopping district on Coastal Village Road.
