Harry and Meghan ordered to evacuate Montecito mansion amid deadly California floods

10 January 2023, 10:09 | Updated: 10 January 2023, 10:31

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been ordered to flee their California home after devastating floods hit the US state, claiming the lives of 14 people.

It follows the news a five-year-old boy has been swept away by flood waters, after the truck he and his mother were travelling in became immersed.

The order to evacuate the enclave, which is popular among celebrity homeowners, followed a mudslide warning on the day the Duke of Sussex's long-awaited book Spare hit shelves.

Located North of Los Angeles, the warnings saw Montecito's 9,000 residents ordered to leave their homes, alongside 14,000 others along the coast.

Harry was not believed to be at home at the time of the evacuation order, having travelled to New York with armed bodyguards to record The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as part of his book publicity tour.

Read more: Readers flock to bookshops at midnight as Harry's tell-all memoir hits shelves after days of controversy

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It remains unknown whether the Duchess was with him in New York, or at home with the couple's two children in their Montecito mansion.

Harry's highly anticipated memoir contained a host of revelations, including drug taking, the loss of Harry's virginity to an older woman, and the fact the Duke had killed 25 Taliban during his tour of Afghanistan.

The couple's neighbours in Montecito include presenter Oprah Winfrey, a longtime friend of Meghan's who led the first US tell-all interview with the couple.

Ms Winfrey's current whereabouts are currently unknown.

Last night it was announced Montecito would receive eight inches of rainfall in a 24 hour period, which on top of a series of torrential downpours, could spark deadly mudslides in the area.

The slides hold the potential to send rocks, boulders and other debris smashing into nearby homes and vehicles, after the hillsides remain bare following recent wildfires.

The storms have so far seen thousands left without power, as forecasters warned local residents to brace for a "relentless parade of cyclones" in the coming days.

It follows a video posted to social media last night by American television presenter Ellen DeGeneres, herself a Montecito resident, who points out the storms coincide with the five year anniversary of mudslides which devastated the area.

The 2018 mudslides led to 23 fatalities, 167 injuries and over 400 damaged homes.

DeGeneres said: "Montecito is under complete evacuation, the entire town. This is crazy! We are having unprecedented rain. We have horses ready to evacuate."

"This creek next to our house never ever flows," DeGeneres can be heard saying in front of the swollen river in her garden.

"It's probably about 9ft up," says the presenter of the water level, adding she thought it could rise "another 2ft" before she'd need to evacuate.

However, given the updated warnings, it's believed she is one of the many residents ordered to evacuate.

"We need to be nicer to Mother Nature," she adds.

"Stay safe everybody. Yikes."