Los Angeles In Southern California, the season’s first major storm dumped snow and rain on wildfires, causing some ash and sludge to wash across streets in the Los Angeles region Monday.
Near the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, where workers cleared flooded roads, including the renowned Pacific Coast Highway, more than an inch of rain poured in many places, easing the slopes in Los Angeles that had been bared by the previous fire.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District announced in a statement that four schools in nearby Malibu were closed Monday because of hazardous traffic conditions.
Flood watches were still in place for fire-scarred parts of the Palisades, Altadena, and Castaic Lake due to residual pockets of rain, even though the clouds were dispersing.
According to Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office, all of these recent fires are extremely vulnerable to swift runoff.
The rugged Tejon Pass portion of Interstate 5, a vital north-south route for the state, was closed north of Los Angeles due to snowy conditions late Sunday. On Monday afternoon, it reopened. The roadway is vulnerable to storm closures because it rises more than 4,100 feet between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley.
A winter storm warning was in effect Monday for mountains in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, with the storm expected to dump roughly one foot of snow on them. Some automobiles traveling to ski resorts in the Big Bear Lake region northeast of Los Angeles had to be chained due to icy roads.
Rainfall was less than an inch in some parts of San Diego County and more than an inch in others.
After months of dry and frequently windy weather that produced hazardous fire conditions, the rain started on Saturday.
In regions devastated by the Palisades and Eaton fires, which broke out during strong winds on January 7 and left entire neighborhoods in ashes and ash, Los Angeles County firefighters spent a large portion of last week clearing vegetation, shoring up hillsides, and strengthening roads.
The Palisades Fire, the biggest of the fires that killed at least 12 people and burned thousands of houses, was 94% contained on Monday. At least 17 people have been murdered in the Eaton Fire, which started close to Altadena and is 98% contained.
The Hughes Fire, which broke out north of Los Angeles last week and forced over 50,000 people to evacuate or be on alert, was almost completely contained.
Firefighters in San Diego County made great strides against the smaller Border 2 Fire, which was raging across a remote region of the Otay Mountain Wilderness close to the U.S.-Mexico border, thanks to downpours.
In an effort to lessen the environmental effects of fire-related pollution, Los Angeles city and county officials accelerated cleanup work and other steps last week. According to a White House statement released on Friday, President Donald Trump has instructed federal officials to assist local authorities. According to the statement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other departments must create and implement a strategy to speed the bulk removal of general and contaminated debris within five days of the order.
Authorities warned that ash from recent fires was a poisonous mixture of burned automobiles, electronics, batteries, building supplies, paints, furniture, and other domestic objects. Lead, plastics, asbestos, and insecticides are all present. When cleaning up, residents were advised to wear protective gear.
Since 2018, when a downpour struck mountain slopes scorched by a massive wildfire, causing mudslides to decimate the community of Montecito, up the coast from Los Angeles, worries about post-fire debris flows have been particularly acute. Twenty-three persons lost their lives and hundreds of homes were damaged.
A nearly record-breaking run of dry weather in Southern California was broken by the rain. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that the majority of Southern California is currently experiencing severe or extreme drought.
The Associated Press
