Flood, mudslide threat prompts evacuations in California's Santa Barbara County

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fire officials issued immediate evacuation orders on Monday for the entire community of Montecito, California, and portions of Santa Barbara and other adjacent towns due to heightened flood and mudslide hazards from a recent string of heavy rainstorms.

The evacuation alert, posted by the Montecito Fire Department on Twitter, came five years after mudslides struck wildfire-scarred hillsides and canyon slopes around the affluent Southern California community, killing more than 20 people in January 2018.

(The story has been refiled to fix a dropped word in the headline)

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler)