9 Millibar Santa Ana Starts This Afternoon, Should Peak Overnight With Winds Above 60 MPH

Firefighters are being pre-positioned in the Malibu area mountains. 

Topanga Canyon serves notice that their road thru the mountains will be closed – again – to non residents. 

The National Weather Service predicts peak winds of 70 miles per hour on the Malibu coast. 

The forecast office has issued the second “PDS” warning of this year.  

PDS stands for “particularly dangerous situation” … an unusual warning level that is only. Used in the most extreme weather patterns. 

Red Flags go up for Malibu at 2 this afternoon … 

The PDS Red Flags go up at 10 tonight… and stay up until 2 in the afternoon tomorrow. 

70796 REDFLAGS DEFINED 

“A red flag warning means we have high wind – sustained over 25 miles per hour; low relative humidity; and low fuel moisture.

“That combination creates volatile fire behavior.

“It is really important to just stay away from anything that causes a spark of the next couple of days.”

Fire Captain Sheila Kelliher Berkow. 

This will be an unusual Santa Ana … it will start in the afternoon and not in the morning.

And it will be more from the east than the north.

And the cold jet stream winds that are usually way up in the atmopshere will be pushed down to the surface tonight … over Malibu … that’s also unusual.

This will be a 9 millibar storm … 9 millibars of pressure difference between the deserts and the coastal areas.  

That is a lot. 

The National Weather Service says … and we quote … the Calabasas, western Santa

Monicas and Malibu areas will be greatly affected by these winds. 

That may be an understatement.

Peak wind gusts in the mountains could reach 80 mph.

Peak wind gusts along the coast … as high as 70 mph. 

Sheriff’s Captan Jennifer Seetoo … last night … 

70795 EVAC EARLY SEETO 

“We are getting ready for a big Red Flag event. Make sure yopu are ready.

“When deputies come, or when you hear the alert, evacuate early.

“Make sure you are talking to your family about what your plan is.

“Have to go bag ready to go with medicine, any kind of medication that you need, have it ready to go.

“Know your exit. Prepare your vehicle, make sure you have a full tank of gas, get your gas tank filled now.

“Park it in a direction that is easy to evacuate.

“Be alert – also know there may be PSPS (intentional blackout) going on and we may not have electricity, so make sure to have yur radio ready. .

“Follow the ‘ready set go’ protocal and please evacuate early.”

Remember … the power company may cut electricity to Malibu as early as this afternoon.

That means traffic jams and huge traffic jams tonight … if evacuations are ordered and traffic signals are out.

Topanga Canyon Boulevard will again be closed to non residents … starting this afternoon … until the winds subside.

The Topanga Elementary School will hold classes in Woodland Hills today. 

Topanga Canyon is a particular worry to firefighters this year.

Local conditions …. Lots of accumulated dry grasses and bushes … make that an area of special concern.

During the last windstorm like this …. five weeks ago … an area just like Malibu caught fire in winds just like this. 

That was 30 miles to the north .. near Santa Paula.

Those 70 mile per hour winds carried fire … which jumped from one mountain range to another … and burned all the way from Santa Paula to the 101 Freeway in Oxnard. 

130 houses were burned down in less than two days. 

Those wind conditions will repeat tonight in Malibu.

LA County Fire chief Drew Smith repeats his plea … if an evacuation order comes … please leave. 

70740 EVAXTYPES 

“Please adhere to these evacuations.

“Listen to the messages.

“With evacuations we have three different components:

(1)  We have an evacuation order, which is time to evacuate your area.

(2)  We have an evacuation warning with a suggestion that you evacuate, which may escalate to an order or it may be relieved.

(3)  Or we have a shelter in place order.  That means there is no time to evacuate, the path of the fire will have direct impact to homes, and the safest places inside your home rather than be in your car or somewhere else navigating a road system in the path of the fire.”

The governor’s office has brought additional firetrucks down from Central and Northern California. 

47 fire engines and tenders … plus 4 helicopters … have been brought down to Southern California. 

Malibu schools will be in session as usual this morning.

But it is very possible they will be cancelled tomorrow. 

There is some good news in all this … the computer models are now predicting an earlier end to the windstorm than at first thought.

The winds may taper off tomorrow night … instead of two days from today … Wednesday morning.

SCE Not Apologizing For Useless Power Blackout Warnings Last Weekend

Southern California Edison says they understand that last week’s predictions of intentional power outages … for a supposed Saturday windstorm that never appeared … were upsetting.

“We understand outages can be a hardship for our customers, however we cannot compromise on safety.”says SCE spokesman David Eisenhoause. 

The power company spokesman says they use several points of information when we determine PSPS, including our own weather forecasts and field observations, among other factors.

SCE was widely criticized in Malibu for sending out blackout warnings for a “wind event” last week that did not result in any strong winds.

Body Found Below Deer Creek Rd, Search Continues For Possible Other Dead Man

A human body has been found on the cliff below Deer Creek Road … where a Cadillac Escalade tumbled 1 thousand feet down the steep escarpment a week earlier.

As we reported last week … the crash was at about 2 am Sunday morning. 

One man reportedly climbed out from the wreck … and caught a ride home to Ventura County without notifying rescue workers. 

After getting home and being taken to the hospital by family … that man told officials he had been a passenger in the crash and wasn’t able to reach the two others.

After some confusion … a search was mounted on Monday and Tuesday.

Search dogs and a helicopter equipped with thermal cameras scoured the cliff … but no one was found in the vehicle or nearby mountainside.

A missing persons report was filed on Friday…  prompting the Ventura County Sheriff’s volunteer search-and-rescue team to rappel down to the site.

The man’s body was found in an area covered by thick foliage, said California Highway Patrol Officer Ryan Ayala in an interview with the Ventura County Star.

With the discovery of the body on Saturday  … that now leaves one missing person. 

CHP Hires Michelin To Sniff Out Cellphones In Traffic That Stops Suddenly, Map Drawn Of Hazardous Places On PCH

A traffic analysis using cellular phone data has been released for part of Pacific Coast Highway. 

And it shows that the most-dangerous section of PCH in western Malibu is the hill that ends with a series of short left turn lanes and at Busch Drive and the Zuma Beach entrance.

Michelin … the company that makes tires … has a division that uses cellphone data to detect locations where phones are in vehicles that crash.

Or … brake hard.

The company can even use the motion detectors inside cellphones to determine when cellphones are being used inside vehicles that are being driven.

Harsh braking … rapid accelerations .. sudden stops indicating a crash … cellphone usage data … thjis data is  being collected and analyzed by Michelin … with the raw data being sold.

The data indicate that PCH near Point Dume has frequent instances of drivers making severe … quick stops. 

That area includes the Busch Drive signal .. which is notorious for being hard to spot as drivers accelerate down the hill from Heathercliff to Zuma.

The Michelin study says the average vehicle is coming down the hill at 58 miles per hour …. 8 miles an hour over the speed limit. 

Harsh braking starts 500 feet before Bonsall Dr and continues until Busch Drive.

There … the traffic light is hidden by trees … until the speeding traffic goes around a curve.

Eastbound traffic often brakes severely at the place where food trucks cluster between Heathercliff and Portshead. 

Caltrans officials are suggesting that a traffic circle be installed there … to sort of the traffic maze at Westward Beach and the Zuma Beach parking lot.

And to slow down traffic. 

The number two danger zone detected by the computers was eastbound PCH from the Malibu Lagoon though the tourist and pedestrian-heavy business district.

The average vehicle is coming across the Malibu Lagoon bridge at 58 miles per hour … that’s well over the 45 zone. 

Speeding is a major concern on PCH near Pepperdine … with average traffic speeds heading west away from the John Tyler moving at about 60 miles an hour most of the day. 

And the Michelin data confirms that the crashiest area in Malibu … the stretch of PCH with th highest danger for crashes … is on PCH at Las Flores Canyon Road.

All of this was released just as Caltrans is about to unveil its design alternatives to redesign PCH.

This week the state agency will show the results of a yearlong project to get feedback from the public … on how to redesign PCH to make the road more safe.

Caltrans has already made it clear that sidewalks and bikeways will be installed along PCH.   

A new state law requires that.

Although the Malibu city council is being asked for its opinions … the decision on how to comply with state law and provide for safe pedestrian and bicycle use of the highway belongs to the people control Highway 1.

That would be the California State Transportation Commission. 

The Caltrans PCH meeting is Wednesday night at 6 … at Malibu city hall …

Haylynn Conrad To Be Sworn In Tonight

Haylynn Conrad will be sworn in as Malibu’s newest city council member … tonight.

And council man Paul Grisanti will leave office … after his four year term ended in defeat.

Not much on the city council agenda other than that … tonight. 

The city council will not meet again … as scheduled … until early next year.