Ellen DeGeneres Shares Crazy Footage Of Raging California Storm
Ellen DeGeneres showed wild flooding at her home in Montecito, California.
Flooding and rain have hit the southern California town of Montecito, which is home to many celebrities. Ellen DeGeneres is one of those famous residents and she tweeted a short video showing the effects of the weather near her home. Behind her, a creek that she says usually never runs is a raging river and the former talk show host adds that it may rise another two feet.
Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for Montecito’s lower ground, but Ellen DeGeneres is located in an area that is higher above sea level. Nevertheless, she admits in the video that she and her household have horses prepared in case they need to leave since cars are a huge risk on flooded streets. “We are on higher ground, so they asked us to shelter in place,” she said in both her tweet and her video.
The flooding comes on the five-year anniversary of another deadly event that killed 23 in floods and mudslides in 2018. The weather started on Monday night, bringing flash floods to the area, and killing 14. Both the city and the state are scrambling to address the matter and provide aid and emergency assistance to residents affected.
The flooding has caused road closures all over the areas north and west of Los Angeles in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Kern counties. Mountains in these regions collect the rain and channel it into deadly rivers that can destroy homes and flood the roads. Ellen DeGeneres’s town of Montecito lies on a narrow strip of land between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean beaches, putting it right in the path of water draining down the south side of the mountain chain.
2022 was a tumultuous year for Ellen DeGeneres, as she ended her show after nearly 20 years on the air. Two celebrity deaths also haunted her, including the tragic accident that befell former partner Anne Heche and the suicide of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DJ Twitch. Prior to 2022, she won 33 Daytime Emmy awards for her talk show as well as accolades for her sitcom, Ellen, during which she came out as gay, marking the first time a gay character was the lead in a sitcom.
The flooding in Montecito is another catastrophe that is starting the new year on a sour note for Ellen DeGeneres. Life-threatening floods and mandatory evacuations are no laughing matter, even for a comedian, and the safety of the residents of Montecito is obviously in doubt based on the video she posted on her Twitter timeline. “This is crazy,” she tells the camera, having to shout to make herself heard over the rushing waters.
“We need to be nicer to Mother Nature,” Ellen DeGeneres adds mournfully to the camera. “Because Mother Nature is not happy with us.”
Heavy rains and flash flooding are one of nature’s many ways of clearing debris from the ecosystem, and flash floods can’t tell the difference between an overgrown brush and someone’s house. Ellen DeGeneres is not wrong when she pleads for people to respect nature and its processes, both locally and globally. The residents of Montecito might still have to beware of flash floods in a greener, more environmentally friendly world, but to face this devastation so frequently is a sign that humans need to do more to live in harmony with the world.
