9:00 pm – The river is receding, and all is safe. Reports this evening is that the road through Ft. Hunter-Ligett and all bridges are in good shape and open. Today, bigsurkate saw its prior record for number of visitors, set on September 30, 2008 when the Chalk Fire broke out, broken.
I am exhausted and am turning in. I might not be back online until 9 am tomorrow. *IF* we are lucky, Avis, who gets up early and has 24 hour power at Lucia, will post something about conditions in the am for me until I can get online and catch up. In the mean time, be safe and take care of one another!! Oh, damn. The rain has picked up again. It doesn’t matter, I am falling asleep at the key board and can no longer spell or type properly. Nite all.
8:30 pm “I don’t know of you can post out quick but a large tree branch is down on the south bound land mile marker 46 on a blind corner. Fire in route but everyone is busy. Could cause a accident. Keep your eyes out everyone.”
I just received these from Rain at the State Park. These first three were taken at Andrew Molera. XT posted in the post immediately below that the river peaked at 10.36 feet as was receeding.
Rob Weller has some evening photos showing the river up to the office door at Riverside and also in the lower campground. Hope there is little or no damage anywhere.
fire road and crossing at Andrew Molera 3/24/11 br Rain Greenslate fishing regs sign at AMSP main crossing, 3/24/11 by Rain Greenslate
AT 5:27 pm THIS EVENING THE NWS ISSUED A FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR THE BIG SUR RIVER. THE RIVER IS AT 9.25 FT AND FLOOD STAGE IS CONSIDERED 10 FT. WITH MORE SHOWERS EXPECTED, IT IS LIKELY THE RIVER WILL REACH FLOOD STAGE BEFIRE IT BEGINS TO RECEDE.
PLEASE NOTIFY ALL AFFECTED PERSONNEL AND TAKE NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS.
Sidney Reade
Monterey County OES
796-1902
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Reports from locals indicate that the river is flowing quite fast and carrying some rather astonishingly large trees. One friend near the river has evacuated, others are keeping an eye out on the levels. Fortunately, many k-rails from the winter of 2008 are still in place. BE SAFE!!
Hello everyone. Avis here at Lucia. Been a crazy day today trying to get all the people trapped between the road closures to a safe place for the night. And giving them a safe, dry place to hang out until we were sure they could not get through today. When I left work we had almost a full house and had made phone calls and arrangements for people to stay at different locations on the north coast. So thank you to everyone who worked with me today and helped to get these people to a safe location.
Officer Ben, thanks for stopping in to see us today. It was nice to see you and I hope you made it home safe and sound. Please leave a comment and let us know you’re okay.
I handed my camera to one of the bridge workers and asked if he had time to snap a few pics so everyone could see what the slide looks like. Below are those shots.
This first shot shows the roof of the loader working on the south side of the slide. This was the loader that got damaged. The windows were broken by rocks and the loader is out of commission for the moment but repairable. The operator is fine…thank goodness. He had a bloody nose and a cut on his forehead.
You can see how dangerous this is for the workers. Working on an active slide with large rocks falling. You can see the roof of the loader on the south side of slide.
Limekiln slide looking southWorking hard trying to open a lane
Thanks again to everyone who kept us informed on the situation. To all of the road warriors who worked so hard today in the wind, rain & falling rock. You are so brave and we appreciate you all. To all the other businesses I worked with on the phone today. And to the entire staff at Lucia. Everyone worked hard at making the stranded motorist feel safe, we fed them good food and offered warm safe rooms for them to stay at tonight.
5:00 pm – got an update from the Big Sur Health Center for all of us:
Big Sur Health Center update:
As always, the Big Sur community has 24-hour access to a physician on-call through the Big Sur Health Center.
During the road closure, our regular office hours of Monday-Friday, 10:00 – 1:00 and 2:00 to 5:00 will remain in effect; however, we have extended our services to accommodate urgent medical needs during hours when we are closed.
For clarification, we have changed our answering service message and that should be in place later tonight.
In the meantime, if you have a true medical emergency, please call 911.
If you have an urgent matter that can’t wait until the next business day, please call the health center and listen to the entire message. You will be put in contact with the MD on-call. That person will assess your need and either offer advice or call local health center personnel to make arrangements for you to be seen at the Big Sur Health Center.
The weather and road conditions have created an enormous staffing challenge for us and we are attempting to meet your needs as efficiently as possible. Please try to be patient, use emergency services judiciously, and most of all, be safe.
3:20 pm – Big Sur Valley is reporting no power. There are 2 P.G. and E workers between the slides, so hopefully, power can be reinstated, but just in case it can’t – find your candles, flashlights, batteries, and lanterns. Buy ice, if you can. Oh, and keep those freezers closed. It will help keep the food from unthawing any sooner than necessary.
My thoughts, and those of my readers outside the Valley are with you all. Be safe tonight, please.
2:40 pm – Per CHP website:
2:39PM ATTN SLO COMM: REQ BEAT UNITS BE MADE AWARE OF THIS CLOSURE, AND ANTICIPATED OPENING OF 1 LN AROUND DUSK FOR CALTRANS, EMERGENCY VEHS, AND CONSTRUCTION ONLY
2:00 pm – official word is that work has ceased for the day at the operation at Limekiln due to safety concerns. One Windor loader was damaged, although the operator was not injured. The slide will be reassessed first thing tomorrow morning. Hunker down, it is not worth someone’s life, and don’t forget the operator we lost in the big slide of 1983. We do not want a repeat.
Noon – Official word from Colin Jones, CT is that this slide will NOT be open all day. Hoping to have it cleared by dark, but LOTS of material is falling on the road plus precarious large rocks that need to be brought down. Confirmed that the slide is SOUTH of Limekiln and that the Los Padres sign is buried in rubble. Chimney Slide at Limekiln, 3/24/11 photo courtesy of Cal-Trans
11:30, from Avis about an hour ago: “Road closure near Limekiln State Park. I just got done speaking with officer Ben Grasmuck with the CHP, in fact he is standing here now. Best case scenerio for road opening (at least one lane) is 4 hours and possably 8 hours. Ben said he would instruct the CHP office to call us at Lucia when they get the road open.”
10 am – Sorry, it took longer than usual to get gennie going due to rain. Confirmed that the road is closed south of Limekiln at a place called “The Chimney. One report is that it will be open around 1 pm, another report is that it will take most of the day to open. The official word from Cal-Trans is 1 pm. Re-open is completely dependent on weather, of course, and heaviest rains expected between 11 and 2. This slide is north of N-F Rd. by a couple miles (slide at 20.5, and N-F at 18.9), so Big Sur is effectively an island for the moment.
BIG SUR MILE MARKERS ARE ALWAYS LINKED TO THE RIGHT, CURRENTLY UNDER THE LA NINA 2010-2011 SECTION. DURING FIRES, IT IS STILL THERE, JUST SHIFTED TO THE FIRE SEASON. REDTAIL HAS A VERY GOOD, DETAILED LISTING AND THAT IS THE ONE I USE.
I am getting gas delivered today, if my road is passable, so should be good until Monday. I’ll try to get going earlier tomorrow morning. It has just been nine days of pretty much non-stop reporting now, and like some of you, I am getting tired.
