In the past 12 months, the Santa Barbara Airport has shut down three times due to flooding on the airfield. Two of the closures happened just this month.
Airport representative Angi Daus says the number of closures is rare.
"Besides the last three events in the last year, we haven’t seen a rain event like this until seven years ago, so that was in 2016, we haven’t flooded like this," Daus explained.
According to Daus, the location of the airport is the biggest factor in flooding.
"We are located right next to the ocean and the Goleta Slough," Daus said.
Surrounded by Goleta Slough marshland, at the mouth of nearby creeks, and with an elevation at sea level, the airport is prone to flooding, especially when back-to-back storms hit the area.
"Despite how hard we try to predict the weather and clean out the creeks, it’s just Mother Nature taking over," Daus said.
Daus says that before storms arrive, the airport, city, and county work together to clean out surrounding creeks and the slough to prevent flooding.
But once the airport closes, passengers are the ones left stranded.
Denver-bound passenger Mary Raynolds says in her experience, airlines are quick to help.
"They rebook you right away if there is a weather event," Raynolds said.
A Southwest Airlines representative explained that airport closures are handled on a case-by-case basis. Some passengers cancel for a refund and others rebook with a travel waiver.
The airline also mentioned they are in constant communication with their airport partners during weather events and that the recent back-to-back closures will not change their partnership.
The Santa Barbara Airport reopened Tuesday morning.
Daus says the airport plans to do an internal debrief along with the city and county to re-evaluate what’s working and what isn’t in preparation for the next big storm.
