Ready or not, El Niño is on its way.
At Monday night’s Malibu City Council meeting, staffers from the city’s Public Works Department presented a report to council stating in no uncertain terms that precautionary steps taken before rain begins could spell the difference between weathering the storm or not.
“It’s essential that we prepare,” Malibu Public Works Analyst Elizabeth Shavelson warned.
The report included a slide presentation with detailed information about what the city is doing to keep residents and infrastructure safe. The presentation included one slide that backed up Shavelson’s remarks perfectly.
“What can we do now?” the slide read. “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare!”
Preparation includes a checklist provided by the city for residents to best ready their homes for possible harsh weather. The Malibu Times encourages readers to cut out the checklist and keep it on hand to make sure all steps are completed before the start of the rainy season (anticipated to reach peak strength between January-March).
Residents should clean storm drains and gutters, clear debris from property, check roof for potential leaks, improve drainage and water issues around property, and stock up on emergency supplies and sandbags.
“There may be times during storms when we are without electricity, so it is important that you have batteries or generators on hand,” Shavelson suggested.
Staff identified potential problem areas throughout the city, including the following:
Encinal Canyon
Upper Busch Drive
Latigo Canyon
Corral Canyon
Las Flores Canyon
Tuna Canyon
Staffers request that residents who feel their property is near a potential problem area reach out to the city to investigate.
“It is essential that we hear from the community about concerns that they have; in fact, we’ve already heard from some residents and have been investigating concerns,” Shavelson said. “We’d like to encourage everyone to continue providing feedback for areas we need to look into further.”
Staff also identified areas where equipment will be staged for ease of access during storms. These areas include:
Encinal Canyon and PCH (Western Malibu)
Westward Beach Road near Birdview Avenue (Point Dume)
Latigo Canyon and PCH (Malibu Cove Colony)
Civic Center Area (City Maintenance Yard / L.A. County Public Works Maintenance Yard)
Las Flores Canyon (Caltrans Maintenance Yard)
Tuna Canyon and PCH (Eastern Malibu)
“Recognizing our 21-mile corridor, we try to stage equipment out so that we can have them on hand in times of need,” Shavelson said. “Hopefully, we should be able to weather these storms and minimize any difficulties that do come up.”
Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal affirmed the report, putting a positive spin on the anticipated storm events that could be coming to Malibu this winter.
“We’re not looking for any problems with El Niño,” Rosenthal said, “just lots of good water.”
