At least you were warned in advance. That's more than you ever gave the world about your little vax weapon. DB

Pacific Coast Highway went from smoldering to flooded in just few weeks

"Just five weeks ago, Pacific Coast Highway was smoldering from one of the most destructive firestorms in Los Angeles County history, with burned-out shells where scores of oceanside homes once stood.

On Friday, the storied coastal road had dissolved into a river of mud and debris after a powerful rainstorm sent those burned hillsides careening toward the ocean, turning canyons into rivers of mud and rocks.

Southern California is used to the cycle of drought and deluge, where fires are followed by flooding and debris flows. But the last few weeks have brought particular climate whiplash to residents of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena burn zones. The fires exploded in part because of a lack of winter rain, which left the landscape unusually bone-dry for January. The rains finally came, but they brought a second wave of challenges. Damage from this week's rains were negligible compared to the fires.

"This was a one-two punch," said Capt. Erik Scott, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department. "There’s an abundance of hazardous materials that needs to be removed, followed by fire debris removal, quickly followed by rain and mud, debris flow — all within a month and a half.”

The aftermath of a powerful storm that dumped rain across Los Angeles County's burn scars came into focus Friday, with a section of Pacific Coast Highway closed after a hill dissolved into a river of mud and rockslides blocking canyon roads that meander through the area's foothills.

Read more: National Weather Service confirms tornado hit Oxnard during powerful atmospheric river storm

At the height of the storm, mudslides rushed down Altadena streets, sending people running. Another slide along Highway 330 in the San Bernardino Mountains buried vehicles in mud and pushed some off the roadway.

In Malibu, a torrent of mud and tree branches slammed into a fire department SUV, pushing the vehicle down a cliff and into the Pacific, where the driver climbed out and escaped without significant injury into the surf. The remains of burned homes and vehicles along the scenic coastal stretch were caked in a layer of sludge.

These were among the frantic scenarios that played out as a record-breaking atmospheric river pounded Southern California this week. The three days of rain was a stark departure from the bone-dry conditions that had persisted through the first half of the region's traditional wet season, culminating in massive firestorms that leveled neighborhoods in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena.

The rapid swings between intensely wet and dangerously dry weather — something climate scientists call "hydroclimate whiplash" — are on the rise. In California, it's played out a number of times in recent years.

In the winter of 2022 into 2023, dozens of atmospheric rivers brought record-breaking rain to California, burying mountain towns in snow, unleashing landslides and providing ample water for thirsty vegetation and farmland. Greenery continued to flourish the following year after another wet winter."

Over two days, the Eaton and Palisades burn scars each received close to 4 inches of rain. And it fell fast in some areas, upward of an inch an hour — a speed that can result in mud and debris sliding off burned hillsides, said Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pacific-coast-highway-went-smoldering-225347070.html