Rob Lowe Discusses Damage from Heavy Storms in Santa Barbara, Calif.: 'Nobody Could Get in Or Out'
Monty Brinton/CBS
Rob Lowe is opening up about the damage his neighborhood suffered after Santa Barbara, Calif. was hit with heavy rain and flooding.
The 9-1-1: Lone Star actor, 58, discussed how he and his neighbors made it out of the area safely after the storms downed a large tree on their street.
"I'm lucky to be here tonight," he told Extra while at the Dog Gone premiere in Los Angeles. "We were trapped for a day and a half. Cut off, so there was a big tree down on my road and nobody could get in or out."
He then detailed how he managed to escape.
"I just got a winch on my truck, so it was perfect. I got to break it in and it worked," he told the outlet.
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On TikTok, Lowe shared footage of a massive tree that had fallen on a roadway.
He appears on camera and says, "We gotta try and get this tree out of the road," as footage shows him using his truck and a rope to get a hold of the tree. At one point, he's inside of his truck as it completely pulls the tree from the road.
"Victory is ours," Lowe is heard saying as he shows a now-clear street.
Heavy storms hit the Santa Barbara and Montecito, Calif., areas on Monday with the National Weather Service reporting more than seven inches of rain falling over the area over the course of 12 hours, while Santa Barbara reported five inches, per KTLA.
Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee via ZUMA Press Wire
The heavy rains triggered dangerous conditions and mudslides, prompting mandatory evacuations for residents of Montecito and parts of Carpinteria, Summerland and the City of Santa Barbara, along with closures to the U.S. 101 freeway and Santa Barbara Airport. Both the Santa Barbara Airport and freeway were reopened on Tuesday afternoon after crews came in and cleaned up the latter for hours to remove mud.
There were more than 200 calls for service received by emergency officials in the Santa Barbara County area on Monday, and multiple rescues were made to save people from cars that had been submerged in flood waters, according to The Los Angeles Times.
APU GOMES/AFP via Getty
So far, there have been 17 deaths in California attributed to the recent deadly storms that have swept across the state, according to Time. Total damages from the heavy storms could exceed $1 billion, according to the state's emergency agency, per USA Today.
Former talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, 64, pleaded with people to do their part to help the environment in light of the storms in a video posted on her social media on Monday. In the video, she shows the dangerous impacts of the heavy rains on a creek near her home.
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"This is the 5 year anniversary from the fire and mudslides that killed so many people and people lost their homes, their lives," DeGeneres says, referring to the deadly January 2018 mudslide that killed 23 people in Montecito. "This is crazy. On the five year anniversary, we're having unprecedented rain."
"We need to be nicer to Mother Nature cause mother nature is not happy with us," she continues. "Let's all do our part. Stay safe everybody."
