In the midst of heavy rainstorms that have deluged Southern California, TV personality Ellen DeGeneres blamed the human race for the torrent of rainfall.
As a flash flood surged through the area just behind her, DeGeneres spoke of her home in celebrity-laden Montecito while referencing the January 9, 2018 mudslides that plunged down from the nearby Santa Ynez mountains and through Montecito, causing 23 deaths and destroying over 100 residences. The mudslides had followed the Thomas Fire that had ravaged the area before the torrential rains hit.
“So, Montecito is under complete evacuation, the entire town. This is the five-year anniversary from the fire and mudslides that killed so many people, and, uh, people lost their homes, their lives,” Degeneres said.
“This is crazy. On the five-year anniversary we are having unprecedented rain,” she continued. “The street next to our house never froze ever, probably about nine feet up and it’s gonna go another two feet up. … We need to be nicer to Mother Nature because Mother Nature is not happy with us. Adults, do our part. Stay safe, everybody.”
.@EllenDeGeneres on heavy rain in California: "We need to be nicer to Mother Nature because Mother Nature is not happy with us. Adults, do our part. Stay safe, everybody." pic.twitter.com/zT2bZsqxu2
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 10, 2023
In 2009, Reuters reported DeGeneres had signed on to play Mother Nature in an untitled comedy film that was to be penned by “Sex and the City” writer-executive producer Jenny Bicks.
The production was supposed to show Mother Nature returning to Earth for the first time since it was created. “I’ve always wanted to control the weather,” DeGeneres said.
After the 2018 mudslides, Mike Eliason, Santa Barbara County Fire Department, stated, “It had to have been terrifying for those people in those homes that night, to hear these boulders getting closer and closer and hearing all those trees snapping as they were getting closer. I can’t imagine the fear in those people as they knew what was coming and they had no escape.”
The Daily Wire reported Monday on the floods endangering Montecito. Fire authorities reportedly said that Montecito saw over five inches of rain between the early morning and late morning hours. Areas of Carpinteria and Summerland, and Santa Barbara were also given orders to evacuate “due to threats to life safety caused by the ongoing storm,” the Montecito Fire Protection District reportedly said.
An evacuation location was set up in Santa Barbara and the fire department’s website was no longer working after many people tried to visit the site on Monday afternoon. Members of the community were reportedly encouraged to go to the social media sites of the department. People who live in Santa Barbara County were also told to shelter in place.
Charlotte Pence Bond contributed to this article.