The runoff from the burn scar from the Palisades Fire resulted in the banks of Rustic Canyon Creek overflowing. The heavy rain, flowing down the denuded hillside, overwhelmed the channel.
It breached the bridges and flooded yards and homes on Friday afternoon. There was no evacuation warning for residents.
Jasper Morgen, 17, who had been displaced with his family during the Palisades Fire, returned home around 4 p.m. on February 13 to pick up his camera after golf – he’s a member of his school’s team.
When he went into the house, he looked out and there was “flooding over the yard” and then into the house. He saw an electrical massage chair that was plugged in, catch fire. “There were gallons of water next to it,” he said and poured it on top of the chair, putting the fire out.
He looked out to the yard and saw a koi fish in the middle of the back yard. The water had come up over the bank, flooded the koi pond and the swimming pool, completely covering them. Morgen ran into the backyard, where the sludge/water was deep. He’s 6’2.”
“Everything was level with my hips, I couldn’t see the pond or the pool,” he said as he tried to save the fish. “I couldn’t see the deck and fell over it. I went in headfirst into the muck/toxic sludge.”
The runoff was a combination of fire debris and ashes mixed with the rain. Even on Saturday, the smell of the remains of the fire destruction was strong in the back yards.
He dragged himself out of the mud, and kept looking for the 30-40 fish even as the sludge continued flooding the first floor of the home.
“I saved seven,” he said, taking them up to the upstairs bathtub to put them in water. He called the fire department, who told him there was nothing they could do. A gardener found three first the next day.
“I was just happy I could save some of the fish,” he said.
This was the yard and the koi pond (left) two days later.
Closer to Sunset, another family was not so lucky, two baby goats were swept away in the flooding. A person called Will Rogers lifeguards; in case they saw a carcass washing up on the beach. “I just thought I should warn them,” she said.
Just south of Sunset Boulevard, near the start of Rustic Creek and the entrance to Will Rogers State Park Road, the situation was more dire. Water flowed off that hillside, bringing tons and tons of mud down, destabilizing the hillside, and blocking Sunset.
Nancy Chiamulon’s home is south of Sunset at that location. Her home survived the fire, and when she returned on the January 8, she saved the guest home by spraying it.
But nothing prepared her for the mounds and mounds of mud that not only blocked her entrance but also came up from the Rustic Creek. One guest house has been completely destroyed by the mud flow that went over the stove.
Worse, she could not exit her home because of the piles of mud on Sunset from the Will Rogers hillside. Traci Park sent over firefighters, who scooped out the entrance to her gate on Sunset.
Mud flowed down Will Rogers Road, blocking the entrance to the home and one lane of Sunset Boulevard. Santa Monica Canyon resident Sharon Kilbride stands by the mounds of mud.
The hillside on the road to Will Rogers State Park is under state jurisdiction. If that hill collapses, it could close Sunset Boulevard – and potentially kill someone driving. Additionally, Chiamulon’s property would be further destroyed. The hillside needs to be stabilized.
Ash/soot and debris from the Palisades Fire was flowed from Rustic Creek and Will Rogers State Park Road into this guest house.
The County needs to clean out Rustic Canyon Creek, as well as fix the boards that have been put in place to prevent the stream walls from collapsing and doing further damage to homes that are on its banks (L.A. City jurisdiction).
The upper stream is considered private property, and some residents feel there needs to be more oversight to have it cleaned to prevent future flooding.
Cell phone reception in the Canyon can be difficult, so an evacuation system needs to be put in place, so that people know if flooding or a fire is threatening.
Rustic Canyon Creek runs through the land below Will Rogers State Park and generally meanders under Sunset Boulevard and continues through Rustic Canyon. That creek then joins the Santa Monica Creek and flows into the ocean.
A 16-mm five-minute film Save Our Stream was found in the Historical Society’s archives. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors had planned to cement that creek in 1964, but after seeing the film, the supervisors voted against it.
Former resident Stewart Slavin said, “The story of the filming of the creek’s plight by a high-powered cast attracted national interest and garnered newspaper headlines around the country.” Slavin wrote: “The good guys won.”
But now the state, county and city have to ensure residents’ safety in a canyon that has been described as a hidden treasure.