Sharon Kilbride captured the rain runoff as it went through the Santa Monica Canyon channel (above) on its way to the ocean (below).
Unlike the Palisades Fire, when evacuation notices were nonexistent or seemed to go to everyone in Los Angeles, yesterday, October 13, Pacific Palisades received numerous evacuation warnings, prior to the predicted rainstorms, which started late in the evening.
The City of Los Angeles Emergency Management continued warnings in the early a.m. alerting residents that “excessive rainfall over the burn scar will result in debris flow moving through the areas in and near the Franklin and Palisades Burn Scars.
“The debris floc and consist of rock, mud, vegetation and other loose materials. . . .get ready and take extra precautions.”
Today at 6 p.m. The L.A. City Alert read “Evacuation Ordesr and Warnings previously issued for potential mud or debris flows are no longer in effect . . .The main part of the storm has passed, but stay alert for potential hazards near you.”
According to “RainDrop,” rainfall varied in Pacific Palisades from 1.76 inches near Radcliffe Avenue to 1.94 inches of rain in the Highlands. The rain season starts on July 1 and runs through June 30. To date there is 2.10 inches of recorded rain.
The annual average in Pacific Palisades is 13.78 inches of rain.
The late Ted Mackie kept records of the Palisades rainfall. The driest cycle was the five years between 1987 and 1991, when Pacific Palisades received less than 10 inches of rain each year.
The five wettest years were 1978, 1983, 1995, 1998 and 2006. The most rain recorded here was 42.60 inches in 1997-1998.
The five driest years on record were 1976, 1990, 2007, 2012 and 2014.
Since 1942, the driest season in the Palisades was 4.11 inches in 2006-2007. The 2013-2014 season ended with 6.13 inches.
The city was excellent at alerting via text and email. They were lousy at preparing!
Now that the cleanup has been over for a number of months, they have failed to clean around the storm drains and make sure they are functional for moving rain of the roads.
On Tuesday morning I found the intersection of Radcliffe and Carthage completely flooded under a foot of water across the street. All 3 storm drains were plugged up with sand bags and erosion control “sausages”.
Same for La Cruz between the Post Office and Village school. Completely flooded and both storm drains blocked.
This is how LA City preprares for events just like for the high winds of January 7!