A large eucalyptus tree fell across Chautauqua Road near Vance Street early in the a.m. on January 18, closing both lanes.
Neighbors reported that the tree was on the homeowner’s property and that the resident immediately called a tree service to remove the tree.
At 11 a.m., the street was still closed as workers cut the tree into smaller, transportable pieces. By noon, the tree had been cut into pieces and workers were waiting for a truck to take it away.
Chautauqua is one of the three egress/ingress streets into Pacific Palisades – the other two are Temescal Canyon Road and Sunset.
The lack of alternate evacuation sites during the Palisades Fire results in traffic jams and eventually people having to jump out of their cars and run to escape flames. Bulldozers then came and plowed the cars to the sides of the road so that emergency vehicles could access streets.
No evacuation route has ever been put in place in Pacific Palisades, and residents are worried if density is added, it could result in more people with no way out of the community that is closed off on one side by the Santa Monica Mountains.
Today was Pro-Am at the Genesis Golf Tourney as the storied tourney returns to the Riviera after the Palisades Fire made it impossible to play at the course last year. Traffic is always bad, but a closed artery compounds problems.
Chautauqua was open by rush hour.
There are those who say they could bike out of the Palisades. Nice thought. But after the winds yesterday, the cement bike path was covered with sand. L.A. County was alerted, so they could clean the sand.
Only a small part of the bike trail can be seen. The rest has been covered by sand.
Photo: SHARON KILBRIDE
Over the past 24 hours, Pacific Palisades received .72 inches of rain, according to RainDrop. More rain, about half of inch is predicted for Thursday, starting in the early a.m.