Los Angeles County leaders warn of heavy rain, possible evacuations in burn areas
Residents in burn areas should remain on high alert as Southern California prepares for what is forecast to be the heaviest storm of the season so far, with potential impacts and evacuations in the fire burn zones, officials said Wednesday, Feb. 12.
California state and Los Angeles city and county leaders gathered to give an update on wildfire recovery, focusing on storm preparation ahead of the major storm expected to impact the area starting on Wednesday night and continuing into Friday.
“We have learned important lessons from previous fires, including the Station fire in the San Gabriel Valley Mountain foothills, where we saw the devastation mud had on homes in the La Cañada area,” said L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes the Eaton fire footprint. The foothill communities will be at an increased risk this week from atmospheric rivers, so please don’t let your guard down.”
With the last rains, a debris basin near the Eaton fire burn area filled up, though it is once again ready to “take the storm,” and this rain event is even more intense.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch from Thursday, Feb. 13 morning through evening.
Mark Pestrella, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Works, emphasized that residents in any burn scar area from the past year are at an increased risk during the rain. Debris from slopes has been removed so that it will not clog systems like basins and dams when the storm comes.
“The flood control system is prepared. We expect an extraordinary amount of debris in certain portions of the streets and how we deal with that, is we have K-rail up. When the debris moves, we keep it in the street,” Pestrella said.
Everyone in a vulnerable location, which is homes in front of slopes that burned in a fire, has been contacted by Public Works ahead of the rain.
The upcoming and past rains have been factors in Pacific Coast Highway closing again after an initial, post-fire reopening.
Pacific Coast Highway remained closed to the public between Chautauqua Boulevard in Pacific Palisades and Carbon Beach Terrace in Malibu due to concerns about possible mud slides or debris flows.
“We know, in particular, that the PCH closure is hard,” L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said. “Residents may need to shelter in place. This is needed to ensure people’s safety and protect life.”
The closure affects many in Malibu, especially the Big Rock area, and Topanga, and Horvath says she knows it is particularly difficult for many students commuting to school.
“We want to open it up, but we only want to do so when it’s safe, so while this wet weather exists, we need to keep it closed,” she said. Horvath emphasized her support for Phase 2 of debris clearance, which began yesterday. She said that for those who opted out of the Army Corps of Engineers clearing services, permits for private contractors to do clearing work should be issued starting Thursday, Feb. 13. As the Corps works on debris clearance, six inches of soil as well as the foundation of homes will be removed, so that fire ash and debris is removed, according to Colonel Eric Swenson of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Sheriff Robert Luna said that Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department personnel are ready for the next few days of rain, with search and rescue teams in place, deputies ready to assist anyone in burn areas and others notifying unhoused individuals in flood risk zones to relocate.
In Altadena and the Lost Hills/Malibu area, residents who may be impacted by mud and debris flow have already been notified, and evacuation warnings will be issued in those areas at some point on Wednesday, possibly followed by evacuation orders as the weather forecast becomes more precise, Luna said.
Luna said deputies have also been canvassing flood-prone areas such as the Los Angeles River to warn homeless people who may be camped there to relocate.
In another aspect of post-wildfire recovery, yesterday, the Board of Supervisors “took additional action to affirm (their) decision, increasing the penalties for price gouging up to $50,000 and enhancing (their) enforcement,” Horvath also announced. The Board voted unanimously for a motion to increase the penalty, meant to combat price gouging, something Horvath says no one should have to worry about in the aftermath of an emergency.
With more emergency alerts expected to be issued in burn scars areas threatened by mud and debris flow during the rain event, Kevin McGowan, director of the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management, addressed past issues with alert systems. False evacuation alerts were sent to thousands of residents during the January wildfires, prompting panic.
“We’ve been going through a mass notification process ever since the countywide alert went out and we’ve worked with the contractor to resolve all of those problems,” he said. “During that period of time we were using the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to assist us in issuing those alerts,” he said.
McGowan said the wireless alert system issue was resolved, but also suggested the public opt-in to county alerts. He said that while the county’s system has been corrected, they cannot guarantee that the infrastructure of their partners, such as cell service providers, have corrected their issues.
McGowan also said that a review is ongoing and findings will be presented in the future. A federal review has also been requested, Barger noted.
Rain is expected to begin on Wednesday, Feb. 12, but the heaviest parts of the storm will hit Los Angeles on Thursday, Feb. 13 night and the morning of Friday, Feb. 14.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works was distributing free sandbags at the La Costa Post Office, 21229 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, for people in the Palisades Fire area. For those in the Eaton Fire area, the county was offering sandbags at Robinson Park, 1081 N. Fair Oaks Ave., and Victory Park, 2575 Paloma St., both in Pasadena.
A full list of locations where sandbags are available is at lacounty.pw/sandbags.