Only one accident in Malibu was reported over the holiday weekend, with no injuries, and only one drunk driving arrest was made locally New Year’s Eve, in Calabasas.
By Hans Laetz / Special to The Malibu Times
With week-long rainfall totals from backyard gauges ranging from 2.7 inches at Trancas to 4 inches at Topanga, the series of wet winter rains that rang in the New Year in Malibu had remarkably little impact, local officials said.
But as the storms cleared Tuesday, high surf returned to west-facing beaches, prompting some concerns that beaches that have been chewed up by 10 days of storms and big waves may be threatened.
The 8-foot breakers and 6-foot high tide Tuesday morning splashed a small amount of seawater into the parking lot near the Zuma Beach lifeguard station. But the eroded beach and sand berms were protecting buildings as designed.
Lifeguards said only a few surfers were braving the rough conditions. A Jet Ski-type watercraft was observed towing surfers into the massive waves at Little Dume, just west of Paradise Cove.
Other than a single vehicle spinout on Pacific Coast Highway above Broad Beach Monday, the Sheriff’s and California Highway Patrol offices said no major car crashes occurred over the rainy, three-day holiday weekend.
“Sometimes people are just more aware during a holiday, or during the rain,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Phil Brooks, who investigates traffic collisions at the Malibu-Lost Hills substation.
On Monday, a sport utility vehicle traveling on wet pavement spun out of control on Pacific Coast Highway about a quarter mile west of Trancas. Water surged 50 feet into the air when the car hit a fire hydrant.
Although the SUV then struck a tree and was nearly destroyed, the lone occupant was not hurt, firefighters said. It took about a half hour to shut off water to the broken hydrant, which washed oil and gas from the totaled car into the storm drains and ocean.
A small rockslide Sunday night on Pacific Coast Highway near the Getty Villa and another one on Malibu Canyon Road Tuesday morning were quickly scraped up by Caltrans crews.
The usual puddles and mudflows in the right northbound lane of Pacific Coast Highway got some vehicles muddy or wet on New Year’s Eve, but witnesses said traffic was unusually light in the stormy holiday.
“Everything that popped out into the roadway got swept up real quick,” said Malibu emergency services coordinator Brad Davis. “We were monitoring the whole event all weekend, but never had to do anything.
“It looks like all the preparations paid off,” he said.
Brooks said deputies made only one drunk driving arrest New Year’s Eve in the Malibu-Lost Hills area. That arrest came at 10:30 p.m. in Calabasas.