Day: March 16, 2011

Road Closed

The most incredible photo is in the Herald. I’m on my iPhone so not sure I can copy but here is the link, and if that doesn’t work, navigate from the link on the right under “news”
cid:image001.jpg@01CBE425.7BE095F0
http://www.montereyherald.com/portlet/article/html/render_gallery.jsp?articleId=17629879&siteId=570&startImage=1

The southbound lane of Highway 1 about 2 miles south of Rocky Point is gone and so is the majority of the northbound lane in Big Sur on Wednesday. (ORVILLE MYERS/Herald Correspondent)

Here is a link to a written report from KSBW but it doesn’t really add anything to what we all ready have and with that, at 9:30 pm, I bid you a good night. I’ll keep on top of this story tomorrow.

And from KION this photograph:

Here is KION’s link, which includes one more photo, as well as a report on conditions. KION

Everyone should keep in mind that the South Coast portion of Highway One is very fragile. We have a major slip out at Lucia being repaired, and there have been numerous slides at Mud Creek south of Gorda, as well as another possible contender for a closure going on between the county line and Ragged Point. My trip down N-F Rd. last Friday revealed it was in pretty good shape on the front or coastal side, but won’t know about the back or inland side until this Friday, and will report then.

Remember, many of our biggest slides and longest closures have happened in the Spring.

7:00 pm – one unconfirmed report is in that this will be closed for 5-7 days. I have not been able to verify this. FWIW, CHP says: “EMERGENCY VEHS CAN PASS AT THEIR OWN RISK”

At 5:04 pm, when I originally got the email from Soaring, and then again at 5:15 pm, when I got the call from a friend in town, nothing was on the CHP website. Now it says:

5:45PM 1039 ENTAC
5:44PM 1039 MTRY CTR
5:41PM POTENTIALLY SEVERAL DAYS IF NOT LONGER TO BE CLOSED
5:41PM 22B-CALTRANS ALSO EXPLORING IDEA OF USING PRIVATE AXESS RD JEO HWY 1, UNK IF AVAIL
5:41PM CALTRANS CHANGINGMESSAGE BOARD JSO CARMEL, UNK DURATION OF CLOSURE BUT IS LONG TERM
5:41PM HARD CLOSURE NB AT BIXBY AND SB AT PALO COLORADO
5:39PM 22B-1097, JSO ROCKY CREEK BRIDGE APPROX 40 FT SECTION OF RDWY TOTALLY GONE, CALTRANS 1097, CLSOURE IN PLACE
5:17PM PER CALTRANS, THEY ARE WORKING ON RDWY HOWEVER WANT UNIT TO CONFIRM THIS IS LONG TERM CLOSURE
5:16PM CONFIRM W/CALTRANS 1 LN RDWY CLOSURE FOR IMPROVEMENTS
5:13PM 1039 27-S7, SEND B WATCH UNIT
5:11PM PER RP 3/4 OF THE RD HAS GIVEN WAY
5:11PM RD CREW FLGMEN 1097/NO RADIO CNTACT

Highway 1 is closed by Rocky Creek, Post Ranch had an employee who was driving to town was turned around and had to come back to Sur. The road dropped 6 inches, and isn’t safe to drive on…. 5pm Weds. March 16, 2011. South bound lane, north of Old Coast Road, between Bixby and Rocky Creek. (Original report by Soaring, CHP is claiming 15 inches, but either way, it is serious.)

Also got a call from a friend who had clients down here who couldn’t get home to Carmel.

FWIW, when Rock Knocker and I drove this section on Monday, he was cackling over the drops and predicted this would happen.

Per CHP this section of the road dropped 15 inches overnight. SB lane pretty bad. Hard closure at
Just a personal observation – if CT can’t get one lane safely opened before dark, the road will be closed for the evening and work will resume during daylight hours.

Weather Report

It certainly has been a while since I have provided one of these, and I admit my records are in a bit of a mess right now, regarding season totals, etc. But will make it a priority today, and post those later.

For the moment, let me say that when I woke at 5 am this morning, it was raining gently, and it wasn’t the rain that woke me.

For now, NOAA had this to say: “AS OF 9:00 AM PDT WEDNESDAY…RAIN IS TAPERING OFF AT THIS HOUR BEHIND A FRONT WHICH MOVED THROUGH OUR CWA EARLY THIS MORNING. 24 HOUR RAINFALL TOTALS ARE CLOSE TO THE CNRFC FORECAST WITH THE HIGHEST VALUE AT VENADO (2.26″). GENERAL RAINFALL TOTALS HAVE BEEN 1-2″ OVER THE NORTH BAY MOUNTAINS…1/2-1″ FOR NORTH BAY VALLEYS AND SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS…1/4-1/2″ AROUND SF BAY…AND LESS THAN 1/4″ FOR MOST POINTS TO THE SOUTH.”

And for what is coming, this is the forecast for Friday: “RAINFALL COULD BE LOCALLY HEAVY AT TIME. LIFTED VALUES WILL ALSO DROP DOWN TO MINUS 2 AND WITH MOSGUIDE THUNDERSTORM POPS ABOVE 30 PERCENT FOR FRIDAY AFTERNOON…THUNDER WILL BE A DEFINITE POSSIBILITY. WILL UPDATE THE GRIDS TO ADD THE MENTION OF BRIEF HEAVY RAIN AND THUNDER PLUS SMALL HAIL. SNOW LEVELS WILL DROP BEHIND THE FRONT PRODUCING A RAIN/SNOW MIX AS LOW AS 2000 FEET (WITH LIGHT ACCUMULATIONS POSSIBLE DOWN TO 2500 FEET).”

I’ll bring everyone up-to-date with the rain totals for today and the season later, keeping in mind that I had to estimate on similar values for the 10 days I was in Redondo Beach during the first heavy snow storm of the season.

Until later today (when, beside updating the weather report I might create a new post with more photos from my “out and about” days), blessings to all.