200-300 Houses Remain Evacuated, Schools Closed, As Next Round Looms Tonight
Written by 991KBU on January 16, 2019
Yesterday’s was a fizzle … but tonight’s storm will be very different … and could be very wet.
The National Weather Service says what everyone knows.
Yesterday was not a big storm.
Rain gauges from county line to Topanga and across the mountains … all fairly uniform … we all got about a half inch of rain.
Santa Barbara … Ventura … Malibu … light rain all day.
Orange County got a lot of rain … some coastal flooding along P C H in Huntington Beach.
But today and tomorrow … could be disastrous for Malibu.
This arriving storm is different.
A solid … subtropical flow of rain … an atmospheric river …. is headed towards us.
Today … the forecast is for periods of light rain.
This evening … a low pressure front moves down the coast.
The National Weather Service says this will be an efficient rainmaker.
Rainfall totals with this final storm system of the week should range from an inch-and-a half-to three inches.
Again .. highest rain amounts will be across the south facing slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains due to the orographic lift … as clouds hit the mountains.
Based on latest model solutions, there is some confidence that peak rainfall rates should reach a half inch per hour across the recent burn areas … tonight into Thursday.
There is a 30% chance that veery heavy rain could fall … like three quarters of an inch.
Again … the heavy rain will be overnight tonight … into tomorrow morning.
Rain will start to diminish tomorrow evening with drier skies over the weekend promised.
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About 200 Malibu homes remain under mandatory evacuation orders.
Another 100 or so are evacuated up in the mountains … or in the Ventura County section of Malibu.
But given the geography of Malibu … it is impossible to give accurate geographic boundaries of evacuated areas.
Most of the houses inside the evacuation areas listed by the sheriff are not … in fact .. evacuated.
And … some homes outside the officially described evacuation areas … have been evacuated as well.
For example … an unknown number of homes along Zuma Creek … off Busch and Bonsall drives … have been evacuated.
Sheriff’s patrol cars are checking IDs for cars heading up both Busch and Bonsall.
The official notice of the evacuations … issued by the sheriff’s office … was misleading and incorrect.
All of Malibu West … all of Paradise Cove … those areas were NOT placed under mandatory evacuation areas.
Only six houses in Malibu West … only two streets in Paradise Cove.
Those distinctions of course lost on the Los Angeles news media.
Paradise Cove beach Cafe is surrounded by a wall of sandbags … five feet high.
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Some low lying areas in the Santa Monica Mountains have been evacuated.
Firefighters are staffing their swiftwater rescue unit and stationing it just noth of Malibu.
Yesterday the swiftwater unit crew spent time inthe Santa Monica Moutnains … clearing people from the Woolsey Fire burn evacuation areas in the mountains.
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All five Malibu public schools are closed again today.
School district officials cite an abundance of caution … in making the decision.
Juan Cabrillo, Point Dume, Webster Elementary School and Malibu Middle and High School … plus the preschool and the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu … all closed.
Superintendent Ben Drati tells parents in an email the district is fully aware of the educational needs of its students … and the number of missed instructional days so far this school year.
But he says the safety of students and staff is our top priority.
Parents of middle and high school students are asked to encourage their kids to check into their Google classroom for possible rainy day homework assignments from their teachers.
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The Red Cross shelter has been set up at Santa Monica High School in the South Gym.
Another Red Cross shelter is open at the Agoura Hills – Calabasas Community Center… on Lost Hills Road at Malibu Hills Road … in Calabasas.
