Flooding Possible This Weekend, As Tight Little Storm #1 Will Collide With Broad Storm Front #2 On Saturday

Malibu is getting ready for heavy rain and possible flooding this weekend.

Evacuation warnings have been issued for homes susceptible to mud flows from the Franklin Fire, most particularly, in the Serra Retreat area near the Civic Center. 

There is also the ever-present possibility of street flooding near Malibu Creek at the Cross Creek Road “Arizona Crossing. City officials have warned that the creekbed is full of sediment that has washed down Malibu Canyon, where the steep mountainsides burned 10 months go. 

As much as 4 inches of rain in Malibu … 6 inches of rain in the mountains … are possible starting tonight. 

Major roads will close startg tonight at 10 … when the lower construction zone on Topanga Canyon Boulevard will go off limits.

The light rain will arrive tonight … with heavy rain arriving tomorrow afternoon.

But the big rain will hit Saturday … and it will be windy … with winds off the ocean up to 45 miles an hour.

It’s a big question as to exactly how big this storm will be.

It’s a tight little low pressure system …. Cut off from the jet stream. 

A cut off low .. weatherman’s woe.

It could hit aim its tight little center at Malibu … or it could land up or down the coast … leaving us with light rain.

Saturday morning is when a front will move through this low pressure system … a one-two punch that could slam very heavy rain clouds into the local mountains … resulting in torrential rain.

The Malibu area could see a period of heavier rain right around sunrise Saturday morning. 

Just how how big that tight little Saturday storm will be  … and exactly where it be centered … is still up in the air.

Total rain likely … up to 4 inches on the coast … 8 inches in the local mountains.

But there could be a lot less rain than that … depending on where the low pressure system comes ashore. 

Peak Rain Rate Will Be Enough To Cause Mud To Ooze Onto PCH

Mudslides, debris flows, rocks and water can be expected on roads in and below all there recent burn areas … 

The peak rain will be greater than 1/2 inch per hour Friday night and Saturday morning ,… enough to agains trigger debris flows like last February.

The city has posted evacuation warnings for the eastern half of the city … from Malibu Seafood east … starting at 6 pm tonight. 

People with disabilities .. those with access and functional needs … should consider leaving tonight. 

K-Rail Barricade Erected Along PCH In Front Of Duke’s

A wall of concrete K-rails has been installed along PCH at Duke’s Restaurant… 

It’s a Caltrans attempt to seal off the landmark restaurant from the mud … that is very likely going to flow down Las Flores Canyon tomorrow night into the weekend.

At Duke’s … manager Jimmy Chavez told an ABC 7 reporter … the wall of cement may stand up to the oozing mud coming off the burn scar and down Las Flores Canyon. 

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“The K-rails are going to help a ton.

“But one thing I’ve learned both from 2011 and last year’s flood … is that you’re not stopping that amount of water … no matter what you do it’s gonna find its way downhill in this case to the ocean.

“And so the K-rails will help … we never had that in place before when we got that amount of flow. 

“So you just never know..”

That audio is courtesy of ABC 7.

Across PCH … practically under the highway … sits Malibu Bungaloes … a small floral shop.

If any mud comes down out of the fire burn scar … as is very likely … it will get buried. 

Lynn Bealer is the manager of the Malibu Bungaloes flower shop … she also spoke to ABC7.

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“Will be in sandbagging our back doors along the Las Flores Canyon Road and then where the creek is we’re gonna come down the front here on the PCH we are going to do more sandbagging and more so yeah we’re gonna protect ourselves we can.”

Again … that audio is courtesy of ABC7.

PCH Safety Project Appealed By Malibu Political Club

The Malibu Township Council has appealed the Caltrans PCH safety plan for western Malibu … to the city council. 

The political club says they know better than the Caltrans safety engineers … and they say the Caltrans plan is not the least environmentally damaging possibility … for eliminating carnage along the coast highway.

Also … the Township Council says the Caltrans plan violates the Malibu Local Coastal Plan …

In other words … they claim that one state agency … Caltrans … is violating another state agency’s rules. …. in the form of theCoastal Commission. 

That sets up the possibility that the Malibu Township Council might appeal the city council decision on the safety plan for PCH to the Coastal Commission … possibly delaying it for months or years.

In a statement .. the Malibu Township Council president Bill Sampson says the club is not opposed to bike lanes … a key feature of the Caltrans plan. 

Rather … the club says it opposes these particular bike lane plans … because there will be gaps in the lanes that might force bicycles into vehicle lanes. 

But continuous bike lanes are a poison pill … 

Caltrans cannot remove parking places along all of the coast highway … parking places that would need to be eliminated  to make way for bike lanes in some narrow places. 

What is the Malibu Township Council?
It is a self-selected group of people … many of them failed. City council candidates and their supporters.

Back before there was a city council … they ran for election to their committee … which represented Malibu before the LA County Board of Supervisors.

Now … it functions as a political club that selects its own members … and speaks out for the Malibu Way of Life … a way of life that for 70 years has included almost zero  pedestrian or bicycle safety features on what has become Claifornia;’s most deadly road. 

City Hires Architect To See What Could Be Placed At Heathercliff Park Site

Malibu’s city council has approved plans to start finding out what type of fields and buildings can be squeezed in to the city-owned park site at Heathercliff and PCH on Point Dume. 

Their city council approved hiring an architect to examine the land … formerly the site of the Malibu High christmas tree lot on Point Dume. 

The city council Monday night decided that a recreation center .. not a community center … is the goal for the Heathercliff site. 

The difference … a facility for senior citizens to use as a multigenerational senior center. 

Malibu’s senior center got booted out of city hall when the city needed the space for meetings and emergency operations. 

Over at Heathercliff …Mayor Marianne Riggins says the city needs to see what will fit … playing fields … a building … maybe a pool.

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“They have to lay all these things out to even see what’s possible within that acreage that’s why we need a professional and I think we need to get started on this because we’ve done this this year had not been for the Palisades Fire.”

On Monday night … the city council voted to hire a company to look at the land … and start estimating what it can hold. 

If some of the proposed facilities … l;iek a swimming center or a community resource building … can’t fit… 

The design work will stop and the city council will take a look at what will have to be moved to the Ioki site … 

That is the the big city-owned flat field at the corner of Civic Center Way at Webb Way. … next to the new college building. 

What goes where ….. first … the city needs to know what can fit at the Heathercvliff lot. 

It has geologic problems…. A major canyon splits the lot.

Act has access problems … no major driveway other than on busy Pacific Coast Highway.

And some neighbors don’t want anything built there at all.

Warm To Start Robot Operations On 405 And 10

Waymo driverless taxis as of today will be operating on the 405 and 10 freeways in Los Angeles and the westside. 

The company says that introducing its cars onto freeways is built on real-world performance and millions of miles logged on freeways.

The company says it has skillfully handled highway dynamics with its employees … done comprehensive testing and extensive operational preparation… and closely collaborated with safety officials

Waymo says it can reduce reduce ride times by up to 50% by using the 10 and 405 freeways. 

The company’s leader says “Freeway driving is one of those things that’s very easy to learn, but very hard to master when talking about full autonomy without a human driver as a backup.”

Waymo’s principal software engineer says critical events happen less often on freeways, which means there are fewer opportunities to teach Waymo how to perform when it really matters. 

Waymo says it has expanded its operational protocols, including how it coordinates with the California Highway Patrol.

Texas Oil Company That May Have Pulled Stock Swindle Is Behind Trump Oil Push

A Texas oil company that has been charged with a stock swindle … and 21 counts of criminal violations of California environmental laws… is behind President Donald Trump’s moves to expand oil drilling in the Santa Barbara and Ventura counties area.

The president may announce … as soon as today … plans to open up the coastal waters up the coast from Malibu to new offshore oil drilling.

Behind the move … the president’s battle with Gavin Newsom. 

And also behind the push  … Sable Oil Company … a Houston-based oil company that is a spinoff of Exxon Mobil.

‘Sable has purchased the Exxon Mobil leases … and is trying to restart drilling operations at three of the offshore oil platforms off Santa Barbara. 

The president wants to go much further than activating the old oil platforms … which were considered technically obsolete and awaiting removal … until Trump got elected.

Maggie Hall is a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara. 

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“If this plan was to go forward, this would be the first time that new oil leases were issued in California since 1984 when Ronald Reagan was president.”

Oil drilling has been frozen … since a massive oil spill in 1969 charted Malibu and much of Los Angeles county beaches with oil. 

Oil leases could be issued by the federal government anywhere off the coast … beyond the three mile state jurisidiction area. 

And the Environmental Defense Center lawyer says California has stringent laws that could be used to block offshore drilling in federal waters. 

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“Fortunately, the state of California does have some protections in place for example there is legislation that prohibits supporting new leasing with any state infrastructure that would enable transportation on shore, so we do have some protections in place.”

The Santa Barbara lawyer says the Trump adminstration may try to muscle thru more offshore oil drilling … right next to the California beaches … no matter what the state laws are. 

“the Trump administration you know hasn’t really respected California concerns already so so far saying we don’t want more. 

“There’s been many comments submitted already on this project saying ‘we don’t want to see the Pacific included for any new leasing’ 

Annd so far we’ve heard that the plan which has yet to be released is still likely to include all of the Pacific.”

Maggie Hall was interviewed by KCLU’s Lance Orozco.

Opposition is growing in Santa Barbara County to the Sable oil efforts to restart oil production off there coast. 

County supervisor … who had voted in favor of it … is now oppoosed.

He says Sable’s recent track record of environmental crimes and stock maniplulation has changed “The landscape … dramatically,” 

Supervisor Steve Lavagnino now says “Without spilling a single drop of oil, Sable has managed to push back the reputation of the industry 20 years.”

10 years ago … the oil system  we are talking about ruptured and spilled more than 450,000 gallons of oil near Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara. 

Last year Sable, a company formed with a loan from Exxon to purchase the unit, began work on its pipelines to try tor restart oil production there. 

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Weather for the Malibu …

Cloudy today … high 65 … sunset 4:52.

30 percent chance for showers starts tonight. … and increases to 80 percent after midnight.  As much as a half inch of rain possible overnight. 

Lows around 58.

Showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms in tomorrow afternoon. Highs around 60. 

90 percent chance of heavy rain Friday night.

Rain heavy at times Saturday morning … but possible clearing Saturday night.

More rain pose Saturday night. 

40 percent chance of rain Sunday.

40 percent chance of showers Sunday night. 

50 percent chance of rain Monday.

30 percent chance of rain Tuesday.