The start of 2017 has been a wet and wild one for Malibu residents, who have been navigating rain slick roads and sometimes foggy conditions almost every day since the start of the New Year. Total accumulations from the rainy season, which began in earnest in December, appear to have nearly saturated the ground in many areas, and is now leading to falling rocks, accidents and mudslides on area roads.
And at the time The Malibu Times went to press Tuesday night, the National Weather Service was predicting continued rain with an 80 percent chance of rain on Wednesday and a 70 percent chance on Thursday.
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area’s (SMMNRA) Ranger Zach posted the following warning to area drivers, accompanied by a dramatic photo of a boulder on a road: “As the rainy weather continues this week, please be extra careful on mountain roads! Be on the lookout for rock fall, loose dirt and gravel, trees and slick roads. Our rangers have seen plenty of rock hazards, especially en route to Circle X Ranch, where Sandstone Peak is located.”
The National Weather Service and LA County Department of Public Works maintain a network of rain gauges throughout the county, including a number in the Malibu area. Volunteers manually measure some while others report automatically.
KBUU radio reported the 24-hour Malibu rain totals (in inches) from that source on Monday morning, Jan. 9, as follows: Upper Las Flores — .70 inches, Malibu Canyon — .68 inches, Leo Carrillo — .60 inches and Zuma Ridge — .48 inches.
On the previous heaviest rain storm of the week, approximately Thursday, Jan. 5, KBUU reported the 24 hour totals for Malibu as: 1.42 inches at Upper Decker Canyon, one inch at KBUU studios at Trancas, .81 inches at Leo Carrillo, .62 inches at Upper Las Flores and .59 inches at Big Rock Mesa.
The slick roads have been keeping first responders busy.
On Thursday, Jan. 5, two incidents occurred within an hour of each other. One vehicle went over the side of Kanan Dume Road about one mile north of Pacific Coast Highway, and one lane was closed on PCH at Big Rock due to a traffic collision.
On Monday, Jan. 9, another vehicle went over the side of Kanan Dume Road, this time between tunnels one and two at 10:02 a.m. The vehicle, a gray 2002 Toyota Camry, was driven by Victor Mestanzacerdado, age 27, from Los Angeles.
“The cause of the collision was unsafe turning,” California Highway Patrol officer Leland Tang told The Malibu Times. “He was attempting to negotiate a curve on wet road and lost control. The only injury reported was complaint of pain. It was a solo spin-out with no other vehicles involved.”
In addition that day, KBUU reported a large boulder on Malibu Canyon Road near the tunnel.
On Tuesday, Jan. 10, a mudslide on Kanan Dume Road about one mile north of PCH closed two out of the four lanes for about an hour.
The latest rain and snow storms are helping to ease the six-year drought throughout the state of California, although more so in the northern part of the state than the south. According to last Monday’s report from the California Department of Water Resources, mountain snowpack in the Sierras is now 135 percent of its seasonal average, with up to seven additional feet of snow expected to fall by Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service, the amount of precipitation for the Los Angeles area has been above average over the past few weeks, but still not enough to say the drought is over. The two closest water reservoirs to LA County, Castaic and Perris, are both still at below-average levels.
