For Montecito resident Marco Farrell, Wednesday's evacuation order for people living in the area of the Thomas Fire burn scar was something to take seriously.
Five years ago, Farrell's home was destroyed in the 1/9 Debris Flow that followed the Thomas Fire.
He doesn't want to experience that again.
"Right now, I am getting my last few sandbags to finish up protecting my house, and then we have got someplace downtown that we are going to be evacuating to," he said Wednesday as he filled sandbags at Lower Manning Park.
Farrell wasn't the only one there preparing for the storm.
"We got a notification to evacuate and figured better safe than sorry, get a dozen sandbags to help in case it overflows and gets too close to the house," said Montecito resident Brandon Aroyan.
"Like we did then, we are telling people to get out of the way. This storm is going to be very, very intense. It is not worth the risk of going through what we went through five years ago," Farrell added.
The evacuation orders announced Wednesday affect people living in the Thomas, Alisal and Cave fire burn areas. To find out if you are in the evacuation zone, you can enter your address on the county website.
