Just five weeks ago, the Pacific Coast Highway was smoldering from one of the most devastating fire storms in Los Angeles County history.
On Friday, the celebratory coastal road was melting into a river of mud and debris after a powerful storm transformed the burning hillside into a river of sand and rock through the sea.
Southern California is used for drought and flood cycles, followed by fires and debris flows. However, the past few weeks have brought certain climate whiplashes to residents of the Palisades and Altadena burning zones in the Pacific Ocean. The fire exploded due to lack of winter rain. This caused the landscape to be abnormally bone-dry in January. The rain finally came, but they brought a second challenge. The damage caused by this week’s rain was negligible compared to the fire.
“It was a one-two punch,” said Colonel Eric Scott, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. “There’s a wealth of dangerous materials that need to be removed, then fire debris removed, immediately rain and mud and debris flowing, within a month and a half.”
The aftermath of a powerful storm that dumped the rain across the scars of burns in Los Angeles County focused on Friday. Parts of the Pacific Coast highway were closed after hills melted into muddy rivers and rocky rivers blocked the canyon roads that meandered through the foot in the area.
At the height of the storm, the landslide ran down Altadena Street, sending people running. Another slide along highway 330 in the San Bernardino Mountains buried the vehicle in the mud and pushed several out of the road.
In Malibu, mud and tree branches were slammed into the fire station SUV, pushing the vehicle down onto a cliff and into the Pacific Ocean, where the driver climbed and escaped without any serious injuries to surf. Ruins of burning houses and vehicles along the scenic coastal stretch were anchored in layers of sludge.
These were one of the desperate scenarios unfolded when Southern California blew through the record-breaking atmosphere this week. Three days of rain were a harsh starting point from the dry bone conditions that lasted until the first half of the region’s traditional rainy season, culminating in a massive fire levelling the Pacific Ocean’s neighborhoods of Pallisad, Malibu and Altadena. I did.
Rapid shaking between intensely wet and dry weather and dangerous dry weather – what climate scientists call “hydrogenated whiplash” – is on the rise. It has been deployed many times in California in recent years.
From winter 2022 to 2023, dozens of atmosphere rivers brought record-breaking rain to California, filling mountain towns in the snow, unleashing landslides, and enough water for thirsty vegetation and farmland provided. The green continued to thrive the following year after another wet winter.
But 2024 brings a record-breaking hot summer, escorting extended dry periods that last deep and last in typical rainy seasons, making fun of its lush vegetation, and dangerous wind-driven wildfires We have created crater-dried fuel that will help fuel the product. The fire that tore Los Angeles County in January came during one of the most destructive and deadly winters in modern national history and most of Southern California.
“We’ve seen a lot of effort into this world,” said Stephen Allison, professor of Earth Systems Science at UC Irvine.
Usually, it rains in Southern California by December, so by early January the scenery isn’t dry enough to set fire. He said the drought that lasted until several winter months and caused the subsequent fire season with extreme winds.
“And now, we’re not very extreme, but we have relatively high rainfall right after those fires. It’s like three relatively rare stacked events, and it’s happening in a short period of time. It’s like that,” Allison said.
On Thursday, he blamed the area for being the brunt of the strongest storm of the rainy season so far, crushing rain records from decades ago, smashing strong charred hillsides and unleashing powerful landslides. , caused other damages.
At Oxnard, several mobile home paneling, rain drains and roofs were damaged after destroying the Country Club Mobile Estate and Ocean Hour Mobile Homes Estate.
Los Angeles firefighters said 16 roads remained closed in the city Friday due to streams of debris. More than 3,500 blackouts have been reported, and about 4,300 calls to public works related to fallen trees.
Unlike the mild storm that hit Southern California last week, the river with this atmosphere was immersed.
The storm threw 2.80 inches of rain on downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, breaking the 2.71 inches daily record set in 1954. Riverside had a 1.23 inches of precipitation, breaking the 0.93 inches record in 1980. An inch of rain fell, breaking the 1.53-inch record set in 2001.
Further north, 1.45 inches of rain fell at Pasolo Bulls Airport, breaking the 1.11 inches record set in 1986. At Santa Maria Airport, 1.21 inches of rain fell, breaking records for the set one inch below in 1986.
Over the two days, Eaton and Palisade received nearly four inches of rain each. Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said it fell quickly in an area of more than an inch per hour, at a rate that could allow mud and debris to slide down a burnt hillside.
If you have one storm silver lining, the amount of rain is probably enough to reduce the risk of fire in Southern California. Schoenfeld said, at least for a while.
“Unofficially, it should be pretty significant rain that will put us in low season,” she said.
On Friday, along Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, where we see humid soil and smell of smoke remain in the air, bulldozers use front-mounted blades to slick muddy spurts through the sunset over a scenic coastal highway. The layers were scooped up. . The mass of the mud had settled in the driveway of a Chevron gas station.
In the morning sun in the cold wind, the man wearing a neon green vest and a white helmet scraped out a small piece of mud that the bulldozer couldn’t reach.
The stretch on Malibu Canyon Road near Pepperdine University remained closed after dozens of rocks littered across the road from a stream of debris.
Officials from the California Department of Transportation Engineering will conduct hazard assessments on PCH slopes over the next few days to see what threats pose the hillside after the storm. Officials are concerned about erosion land, and rocks could fall even if the area is dry.
“We need to clean the debris roads and check for damage under the roads not only on the surface of the Pacific Coast highway, but also the components below it.” When 8.5 miles of roads will resume. It’s not clear.
When the crew worked to clean the roads, residents were trying to determine how much damage the rain had caused to their property.
Jennifer Golke, wearing a mask and blue latex gloves, headed down the driveway of her home on Marquez Avenue in Pacific Pallisade. She squeezed her way to the back of the garage, which was packed with boxes, bottles and long paddleboards.
The Palisade fire burned the corners of the garage, and she worried that the rain could drip inside. But to her surprise, there was little flooding, except for some framed artwork and a few boxes.
“It’s a miracle,” she said.
“Miracle” was a phrase she repeated as she toured her solo-storey home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Her house had caused some damage in the Palisade fire. Orange trees in the backyard, carports and corner fruits in the master bedroom.
But somehow it escaped the complete rage of the flames that had defeated other homes in her neighborhood. She has a hard time figuring out why.
Source link
