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SierraMudre.Info - Your Source for Info About Sierra Madre Mud & Debris Flow - a division of SierraMadreNews.Net |
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SierraMudre.Info coverage of December 14 - 17th, 2008 rains, in chronological order, with earliest coverage at bottom
City and County Official Alerts
12/18/08 - 9:10am - City Repeals Yellow Flag Warning
12/17/08 - 5:01pm - LACDPW Extends Phase I Alert till 4pm on 12/18/08
12/17/08 - 8:04am - City Extends Yellow Flag Alert
12/17/08 - 7:29am - LACDPW Extends Alert till 4am 12/18/08
12/16/08 - 6:35pm - City Upgrades to Yellow Flag Alert
12/16/08 - 6:04pm - LACDPW Upgrades to Phase One Debris and Mudflow Alert
12/15/08 - 3:49pm - City Downgrades to Green Flag from Yellow Flag
12/15/08 - 2:47pm - LACDPW Downgrades Mudflow Watch to "No Phase"
12/15/08 - 7:55am - LACDPW Debris and Mudflow Forecast Alert Extended
12/14/08 - 4:44pm - LACDPW Debris and Mudflow Forecast Alert Extended
12/14/08 - 9:02am - City of Sierra Madre Issues Yellow Flag Alert Warning
12/14/08 - 7:03am - LACDPW Debris and Mudflow Forecast Alert
My Observations
6:17am, 12/18/08 - from the National Weather Service website: Today: Patchy frost before 10am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 55. North northeast wind at 7 mph becoming southeast. City emergency blog and City website still say Yellow Alert. No e-mail notification yet from LACDPW re: change in status to No Phase, but I suspect that as soon as office hours hit and someone comes in to the office we'll see a change in status. BTW, NWS calls for 20% chance of showers tomorrow and tomorrow night.
5:30pm, 12/17/08 - Drove around between 4:15 and 5pm. Most everyplace looks pretty good. There's some mud coming down into the road on Skyland, from the driveway at 801 Skyland. Otherwise, One Carter was fine, Yucca Trail was fine, all the way up at the top of Brookside, at the corner of Woodland, everything looked fine. Paul from Public Works, whose last name escapes me right now, was up at the gate to the dam, monitoring things. Saw SMPD cruising around up there, looking at the situation as well. Foot of Mt. Wilson Trail was clear, in fact the gate to the trail was still open, which surprised me.
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4:28 pm - Top of Baldwin, at the bottom of the driveway into One Carter. It's been raining pretty steady for more than two hours. |
4:29 pm - Looking over the fence, you can see the graded area at the bottom of the drive is covered with plastic |
4:29 pm - The ridge in the middle of the picture is about a foot deep, the puddle probably an inch or so at its deepest |
4:30 pm - From across the street looking up, the burned hillside appears pretty stable at this point in time. |
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4:38 pm - Looking west on Skyland, you can see mud at the bottom of the driveway at 801 Skyland |
4:38 pm - Looking further west, where the street curves |
4:40 pm - Looking back east toward the driveway (on left) |
4:50 pm - Looking up Yucca Trail from Woodland. |
3:11pm, 12/17/08 - National Weather Service website now says that the chance of precipitation for the rest of today and tonight is 100%. Spoke to James Carlson at the City of Sierra Madre around 2:45pm and he said that as of then, there were no mud-related problems reported. Let's hope it stays that way. Heading out for a look around in a few minutes.
7:50am, 12/17/08 - Leaving the office, may not be around to update site until mid-afternoon.
7:10am, 12/17/08 - Just took a drive around. Went up to the top of Skyland, went to Yucca Trail, looked at One Carter, and the foot of the Mt. Wilson Trail. As dry and clean as everything was, I decided not to check out Auburn, Sunrise Hill, , and Santa Anita Canyon Road by Lannan. Weather Service is still showing 60% chance of precipitation with a possibility of hail. High of 53 degrees. I'm probably going to be out of the office much of the day till mid-afternoon, though I've got a couple people who said they'd call me if there was any activity in town. But I may not be updating as quickly as I might if I were in town. Need to upgrade my phone so I can update from a distance. On the list of things to do...
6:20am, 12/17/08 - Looking out my window in SW section of town, the sidewalks are dry, looks like the 70% chance of overnight rain didn't materialize. I know when I lived at the top of Auburn, sometimes it would be raining at my house, and as I got down near Grand View, the rain would stop, so it's possible the northern end of town (higher elevations) had rain I'm not seeing here. But the blogs are all unchanged, and I'm thinking we may have again dodged a bullet. Will head out in a few minutes just to take a look around and verify.
2:50am, 12/17/08 - There's some wind blowing outside, but the rain that Accu-Weather said was coming at midnight hasn't started yet. As of this moment, National Weather Service website says 70% chance of precipitation overnight, and 60% chance on Wednesday. Possibly hail on Wednesday. High Wednesday at 53. No change in status at City emergency website, all the blogs are quiet.
4:05pm, 12/15/08 - Spoke with Bruce Inman at Public Works, who tells me that the City is in the process of downgrading to green flag from yellow flag.
7:08am, 12/15/08 - SMPD Watch Commander says there have been no problems reported so far.
4:55am, 12/15/08 - Desk Officer Kelly at SMPD reports "Thankfully, all quiet so far," when I called to see if there had been any reports of problems due to the rain.
11p.m., 12/14/08 - Light rain starting to fall
City and County Alerts/Releases
City Repeals Yellow Flag Warning, received 9:10am, posted 9:12am
The Los Angeles County of
Public Works has removed the Phase 1 mudflow alert and the National Weather
Service is not predicting any chance of precipitation for today, Thursday,
December 18, 2008. Therefore, the City of Sierra Madre has removed all flag
alerts at this time.
The City would like to express their gratitude to the residents for their
patience and diligence during this latest rain event.
The National Weather Service is predicting a slight chance of rain in the next
few days and the City would like everyone to keep an eye on weather reports and
remain prepared for events in the future.
Thank you!
LACDPW Extends Phase I Alert till 4pm 12/18/08, received 5:01pm, posted 5:22pm
No change in status for Sierra Madre, but the alert has been extended through 4pm tomorrow. Here's the document.
City Extends Yellow Flag Alert, received 8:04am, posted 9:34am
LA County Department of Public Works’ 0730 debris and mudflow forecast remains at Phase 1 for the Santa Anita fire burn areas. Thus, Sierra Madre stays at a Yellow flag condition until further notice. This is in spite of only 0.01” of rain in the last 24 hours, as measured at the public safety facility. Continued Phase 1 is likely due to saturated nature of the slopes and National Weather Service forecast of 0.2-0.4” of rain per hour through 1600 today.
LACDPW Extends Phase I Alert till 4am 12/18/08, received 7:29am, posted 7:40am
No change in status for Sierra Madre, but the alert has been extended through 4am tomorrow. Here's the document.
City Upgrades to Yellow Flag Alert, received 6:35pm, posted 7:13pm
Yellow Flag Mud Alert Issued
The City of Sierra Madre issued a Yellow Flag Mud Alert for Sierra Madre residences in potential mud flow areas. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works has issued a Phase 1 mudflow forecast for the Santa Anita Fire burn areas.
It is recommended that residents in the following areas prepare for potential mudflow deposition on: Auburn Avenue east of Auburn Debris Basin; the development under construction north of Carter Avenue; Carter Avenue between the development and Mira Monte Avenue; Mt. Wilson Trail near Mira Monte Avenue; Churchill Road near Skyland Drive; Skyland Drive; streets below Sierra Madre Debris Dam (Sumac Trail, Brookside Lane, Woodland Drive); Yucca Trail; Lotus Lane, above Camillo Street and Sturtevant Debris Basin; Sunrise Hill Lane; Santa Anita Canyon Road above Lannan Debris Basin.
Affected residents should prepare to leave their homes and may choose to voluntarily evacuate. Please note that all vehicles must be off the streets in potential mudflow areas during Yellow Flag alerts. Overnight parking restrictions will be lifted through out the City of Sierra Madre during Yellow & Red Flag Alerts.
Should there be mud flow the City of Sierra Madre Public Works Department will work hard to clean the streets of any potential debris and mud as soon as possible.
Additional information on how to protect your home can be found on the City’s website,
www.cityofsierramadre.com. Mud incident updates can be found at www.sierramadrepio.blogspot.com.LACDPW Upgrades to Phase One Debris and Mudflow Alert, received 6:04pm 12/16/08, posted 7:10pm
Received the following from LACDPW mudflow alert system via e-mail: Duration time period 4pm 12/16/08 - 4pm 12/17/08 referencing National Weather Service at 3pm on 12/16/08 - MUDFLOW Forecast Level - Phase I - It is recommended that emergency response entities monitor the following areas for potential mudflow deposition on: Auburn Avenue east of Auburn Debris Basin; the development under construction north of Carter Avenue; Carter Avenue between the development and Mira Monte Avenue; Mt. Wilson Trail near Mira Monte Avenue; Churchill Road near Skyland Drive; Skyland Drive; streets below Sierra Madre Debris Dam (Sumac Trail, Brookside Lane, Woodland Drive); Yucca Trail; Lotus Lane, above Camillo Street and Sturtevant Debris Basin; Sunrise Hill Lane; Santa Anita Canyon Road above Lannan Debris Basin. Here's the alert
Green Flag Mud Alert, 3:49pm on City Emergency Blog, posted on SierraMudre.Info at 4:29pm
The City of Sierra Madre has
downgraded to a Green Flag Mud Alert for Sierra Madre residences in potential
mud flow areas. There is still a 20% change of rain through this evening and
residents are encouraged to remain diligent. The National Weather Service has
also posted a 40% chance of rain for tomorrow (Tuesday 12/15/08) day and 60%
chance of rain for tomorrow evening.
City officials and staff would once again like to thank the residents for their
continued preparations and cooperation during this mud threat.
LACDPW Downgrades Mudflow Watch to "No Phase", received 2:47pm, posted 4:00pm 12/15/08
LACDPW downgraded Sierra Madre from Phase One to No Phase. Here's the document.
LACDPW Extends Mudflow watch till 4am on 12/16/08 - received 7:55am 12/15/08, posted 8:15am
No change in status for Sierra Madre, but the alert has been extended through 4am tomorrow. Here's the document.
LACDPW Extends Mudflow watch till 4pm on 12/15/08 - received 4:44pm 12/14/08, posted 5:38pm
No change in status for Sierra Madre, but the alert has been extended through 4pm tomorrow. Here's the document.
City of Sierra Madre Issues Yellow Flag Alert Warning, 9:02am, 12/14/08, posted on SierraMudre.Info at 9:12am
Yellow Flag Mud Alert Issued
The City of Sierra Madre issued a Yellow Flag Mud Alert for Sierra Madre residences in potential mud flow areas. The National Weather Service is saying light rain will start at 4 pm today, Sunday, December 14, turning to heavy rain at 10 pm. NWS has issued a flash flood watch.
It is recommended that residents in the following areas prepare for potential mudflow deposition on: Auburn Avenue east of Auburn Debris Basin; the development under construction north of Carter Avenue; Carter Avenue between the development and Mira Monte Avenue; Mt. Wilson Trail near Mira Monte Avenue; Churchill Road near Skyland Drive; Skyland Drive; streets below Sierra Madre Debris Dam (Sumac Trail, Brookside Lane, Woodland Drive); Yucca Trail; Lotus Lane, above Camillo Street and Sturtevant Debris Basin; Sunrise Hill Lane; Santa Anita Canyon Road above Lannan Debris Basin.
Affected residents should prepare to leave their homes and may choose to voluntarily evacuate. Please note that all vehicles must be off the streets in potential mudflow areas during Yellow Flag alerts.
Should there be mud flow the City of Sierra Madre Public Works Department will work hard to clean the streets of any potential debris and mud as soon as possible.
Additional information on how to protect your home can be found on the City’s website,
www.cityofsierramadre.com. Mud incident updates can be found at www.sierramadrepio.blogspot.com.LACDPW Debris and Mudflow Forecast Alert, 7:03am, 12/14/08 - posted SierraMudre.info at 8:03am
Received the following from LADPW mudflow alert system via e-mail: Duration time period 4am 12/14/08 - 4am 12/15/08 referencing National Weather Service at 3am on 12/14/08 - MUDFLOW Forecast Level - Phase I - It is recommended that emergency response entities monitor the following areas for potential mudflow deposition on: Auburn Avenue east of Auburn Debris Basin; the development under construction north of Carter Avenue; Carter Avenue between the development and Mira Monte Avenue; Mt. Wilson Trail near Mira Monte Avenue; Churchill Road near Skyland Drive; Skyland Drive; streets below Sierra Madre Debris Dam (Sumac Trail, Brookside Lane, Woodland Drive); Yucca Trail; Lotus Lane, above Camillo Street and Sturtevant Debris Basin; Sunrise Hill Lane; Santa Anita Canyon Road above Lannan Debris Basin.