LOS ANGELES: The star-studded California town that is home to Britain’s Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle was ordered evacuated on Monday, with firefighters warning mudslides could engulf luxury homes.

Montecito, which is also a favourite of American entertainment royalty such as Oprah Winfrey and Jennifer Aniston, was expected to get up to eight inches (20 centimetres) of rain in 24 hours — on hillsides already sodden by weeks of downpours.

Emergency authorities in the town 90 minutes from Los Angeles said anyone in the area should get out. “LEAVE NOW! This is a rapidly evolving situation. Please pay close attention to emergency alerts,” a fire department website said.

The town, whose multi-million dollar properties are perched in breathtaking California countryside, is particularly vulnerable to mudslides because it sits at the foot of a mountain range that was ravaged by fire five years ago.

Hundreds of square miles of land were scorched in 2017 and 2018, denuding the hillsides of the vegetation that normally keeps soil in place. Without the trees and shrubs, rains can quickly turn treacherous.

“Over the last 30 days, Montecito has received 12-20+ inches of rain across the community, exceeding our yearly average of 17 inches,” Montecito Fire said on Twitter.

“This cumulative, saturating rain puts the community at greater risk of flooding and debris flow.” Former chatshow host Ellen DeGeneres posted a video on Twitter of a raging stream. “This is crazy,” she told followers.

“This creek next to our house never ever flows. It’s probably about nine feet up, and it’s going to go another two feet. It was not clear how many of the town’s residents, who also include Larry David, Gwyneth Paltrow, Katie Perry and Rob Lowe, had heeded the call to flee.

The evacuation order in Montecito came as California was being lashed by the latest in a parade of storms that have already killed 12 people.

A swathe of the Golden State was under flood warnings as it struggled to cope with yet more rain on top of near-record downpours in recent weeks — with even more forecast over the coming days.

“Two major episodes of heavy rain and heavy mountain snow are expected to impact California in quick succession during the next couple of days in association with two of the more energetic and moisture-laden parade of cyclones that are aiming directly for” the state, the National Weather Service said. Up to five inches (13 centimetres) of rain could fall throughout Monday in coastal regions of central California, the NWS said.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2023