Governor Newsom Visits Randall Road Debris Basin

California Governor Gavin Newsom visited the Randall Road Debris Basin on Friday, January 13. The visit from Governor Newsom comes after a National Guard unit was deployed from Chico, CA, on January 12, 2023, to assist in clearing out rubble from the Randall Road Debris Basin in preparation for the upcoming storm. As a special report, here is video of Governor Newsom’s visit with a further report to come.

Local representatives such as 24th District Congressman Salud Carbajal and Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown were in attendance as well.

“It’s great that the Governor is coming down to our area. I think it demonstrates the great collaboration we have here in local government with the state and the federal government. And working together, I think what we’ve proven is that we get a lot more done,” said Rep. Carbajal, whose office helped secure a $13.5 million FEMA grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on behalf of the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District that allowed the county to purchase several properties along Randall Road in Montecito and begin construction on the debris basin near San Ysidro Creek that was finished in October 2022.

He continued, “And today is, I think, reminiscing and reflecting on the fact that a lot of collaboration went into putting this Randall Debris Basin together with funding from different levels of government, and as a result, it worked. And it saved lives, which was the intention of that, and our first responders have done and continue to do extraordinary work. As we saw during the storms, Santa Barbara County had no loss of life. We’re very thankful for that. But of course, some of our natural infrastructure and hard infrastructure was damaged and we need to make sure that we’re able to take care of that moving forward.” 

Before Governor Newsom began his speech, Sheriff Brown gave a statement to the Montecito Journal. “We’re here at Randall Road Debris Basin in Montecito. Behind me you can see and hear the heavy equipment that is being used by the National Guard to remove debris, rocks, from the debris basins, although this one’s not completely full. The other ones in town are very, very full and it’s great that we have this assistance from the outside, from the military, to come in and help clear this quickly so that we have the clear waterways, if and when we get another heavy storm.”

The National Guard will be deployed in the area for the next few weeks to continue clearing out rubble and sediment deposits from the debris basin and other locations affected by the January 9th storm that dumped 12 inches of rain on Montecito and resulted in the entire Montecito community being evacuated.