January 7, 2016
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FIRE and Flood!!!
On the morning after Christmas, after a very windy night, we awoke to the news that there was a brushfire that had closed the one major freeway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. North of Ventura, there is a stretch of road that runs along the coastline -- the old road still exists, and runs right along the shore cliffs; the newer road was built on stilts above the old, or slightly inland, and there is a railroad line that weaves between the two roads. In two or three spots, there are patches of land large enough for small enclaves to have sprung up, and along the old road there are many parking spots used by RV campers. Solimar Beach and Faria Beach are two of these enclaves, with about 10-15 miles between them. That stretch of the freeway had been closed since before midnight on Christmas, and was to remain closed until sometime after noon the next day. There is no good detour -- oh, yes, you can go inland in Ventura, then over 2-lane country roads through Ojai and inland Carpinteria, but that's hardly enough for a busy 6-lane freeway!
Several days later, on a beautiful day, we drove from Santa Barbara to Ojai on what would have been the detour route -- and then down to Ventura and turned north on the freeway. Taking the first offramp north of Ventura, we dropped to the old road -- around the first corner we began to see evidence that there had been a fire. The fire began at the top of the hill, spsreading into a "V" as it raced down the hill, and burned much of the way between the two beaches.
The terrain is very steep, the hills are rocky, and sparsely covered with grasses and low bushes. There had not been a fire in the area for many years, and it was very dry after our years of drought. Around the next corner, this is what we saw! We pulled into a wide spot parking space to shoot some photos.
Looking across the old road to the two levels of the newer road (southbound just behind the railing, and northbound above that)
Part of the new road on stilts -- here you can see how the fire burned right down to the sea, across both levels of the freeway and the old road and the train tracks!
Looking up at the southbound lanes of the freeway
and one final shot across the burned hills and up to unburned hills.
The road opened the afternoon after the fire began, but traffic, always heavy, was snarled through that day and the next.
Yesterday and the day before (1/5 and 1/6), we had the first heavy El Nino rains of the season -- heavy winds accompanied by about 2.5 inches of rain. Because there is now no grass or brush to hold the hills in place, there was serious flooding in this area. This had been somewhat anticipated, and there had been some serious clearing of culverts, etc., but the Southbound lanes were closed again for much of yesterday (yes, the fire came down and crossed the northbound lanes first -- but apparently the culverts took care of the runoff until it got to the southbound lanes).
The storm has produced flooding throughout Southern California, where culverts and/or drains were not sufficiently cleared, and in areas below previous fires -- it takes several years for the land heals after a fire. Lake Cachuma had about 2.5 inches of rain over the last couple of days -- but there has been no runoff into the lake -- the lake level is about 2.5 inches higher than it was before the rains began!
Comments (14)
Wow, it doesn't look like there's even much to burn there! California has some wild weather and earthquakes. I would say I wouldn't want to live there but there are drawbacks to every place so we take our chances in the places we are used to, don't we?
There was lots of grass on the hills, and some low brushy stuff. In this fire, the wind was blowing fiercely (60 mph, with gusts up to 100 mph0, and the fire was very hot, so burned everything in its way. The firefighters really jumped on it, and they were lucky it didn't reach the two enclaves of housing, or run either to the north or to the south. It just came straight down the mountain to the sea, spreading as it went! We had a quake too, on 1/5 morning -- a 4.5 about 50 miles from here! That's considered light-moderate, but it was enough to wake me at 6:30 am!
We are not getting enough rain in Central California. Things are better, but sound like your area is not doing well despite some rain. Bummer.
It's hard to tell after just one series of storms -- there is more spotty rain coming in over the weekend, and then we'll see what happens next! This rain was helpful, though -- it will take several years of rains like this to break the drought1
I'm glad you're finally getting some rain. I wish the reservoirs could fill without the flooding.
Yes, finally! I used to hate the rain, but this week has felt really good. Today is sunny and breezy -- we have a chance of patchy rains over the weekend!
Wow. I'm surprised that there weren't burned skeletons of cars and trucks still littering the road. I hope that the rains don't produce any mud slides... Though you need the rain, the lack of plants will certainly increase the risk if slides after the fires.
They must have evacuated pretty quickly in the middle of Christmas night! There were no reports of burned cars/trucks, and no injuries! Part of reopening the road is a cleaning process -- it looked pretty good a week later when we saw it! The freeway was closed again on Tuesday due to mud slides on this fire area. There's nothing left to hold the mud back, so I imagine there will be closures in the future. This area is about 5 miles south of one where several years ago an entire hillside slid, wiping out the back row of a small group of houses at the bottom. As soon as it began raining, there were flood and mudslide warnings in every area where there has been a fire in the last 4-5 years. They all held through this rain, but it's just the beginning of the season!
It was heartbreaking to see the fires on the news, when I was back in MA. The rain does sound hopeful, though. Several years of El Nino would be most beneficial, but we'll take what comes.
This was an interesting fire -- it began at the top of the hill when wind caused power lines to arc. It ran in a triangle pattern down the hill to the sea, without taking out any structures. How fortunate -- but the damage is yet to occur, as the rains cause mudslides in the area, as happened earlier in this past week. Tonight's news shows that we are still below the average rainfall to this date -- but last week's rains made a dent in that.
It is sad to see burned out areas.
It is -- this one had to be a fierce fire, in high winds and burning right to the sea!
just one thing after the other!
And to top it off, we've had several small earthquakes since I've been home!
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