Winter 2008 - 2009

When the rains come know what will happen where you are and when to move.

From the CPOA, 7 August 2008
A Discussion

Dear Neighbors,

Gary Koeppel, Owner of the Coast Galleries in Big Sur, has forwarded some important information regarding the mudflows of 1972. These mudflows occurred in the winter after the Molera Fire, a fire which burned only a little over 4,000 acres. CPOA is currently in discussion with CalTrans, Balance Hydrologics, the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce, the Big Sur Land Trust, the County offices of OES, NRCS and RCD, Sam Farr’s office, Dave Potter’s office, representatives of the State Parks, the Forest service and several private property owners in Big Sur to see if there is anything we can do to mitigate the potential impact of mud and debris flows post fire.

We will be sponsoring a workshop on erosion control later this month, exact date to be announced. We will also be hosting a workshop on mudflows as well.

Also attached is a note of a conversation between Gary Koeppel and Mike Caplin.

The CPOA Board

From: Gary Koeppel [gary at coastgalleries dot com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 8:07 PM
To: Big Sur Community Leaders
Subject: FIRE + RAIN = MUDFLOWS --- The 1972 Big Sur Molera Fire & Mudslides

To Big Sur Community Leaders and Friends,

In my ongoing attempt to educate those unfamiliar with the potential devastation of mudflows after forest fires in Big Sur, I have attached to this email an article titled “Fire = Rain = Mudflows”, which describes the events leading to the winter mudflows of 1972 written by G. B. Cleveland for the California Geology Magazine in 1973.

This article was sent to me by Mike Novo, the Director of the Monterey County Planning Department, whom we should all express our thanks for sharing this informative and alarming article. I believe it is vitally important for the people of Big Sur to read this article in order to become aware and prepared--- mentally and physically---for the coming winter rains and their potentially catastrophic consequences.

Please note the relatively small amount of rainfall that created the devastating mudflows in the Big Sur Village and State Park that drained from Pfeiffer Redwood, Pheneger and Juan Higuera Creeks into the Big Sur River after the Molera Fire.

Of particular importance---and extremely disturbing---please note on Page 133, that these events “were predicted with uncanny accuracy well before they took place. A team of hydrologists, forester, and pedologists [branch of soil science], from the U. S. Forest service, the U.S. Soil Conservation Service and the California Division of Forestry....and prepared a Forest Service report that gives a detailed chronology of what was to come”.

I am certain the same entities are already conducting a similar study of the Basin Complex Fire. This time, will they share their findings with the community before their “uncannily-accurate predictions” become devastating, life-threatening mudflow events?

Who among us is capable of demanding access to these findings before their findings become realities?

Gary Koeppel

P. S. For some of you who did not receive my last email I titled “Survival, Renewal and the University of the Future”, fondly called a “missive” by a friend, I have also included it as an attachment.

------ Forwarded Message
From: Gary Koeppel [gary at coastgalleries dot com]
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:30:46 -0700
To: Mike Caplin [mcaplin at mbay dot net]
Conversation: What can be done? The truth?
Subject: What can be done? The truth?

Mike,

What can be done?

My disposition is life positive; I am not a naysayer, doomsayer or a profit, but I can tell you what I believe is about to happen to Big Sur.

You want the truth?

The rain gods don’t listen to prayers. Ash and dirt washed by water in a steep canyon have only the god of gravity. Very little can be done, given the enormity of it all.

Oh, yes, loggers could log the canyons for salvage but there are seven layers of government between the trees and their chainsaws.

Oh, yes, Caltrans could do more than cosmetic clearing, but some short-sighted bureaucrat has decided to clear the culvert entrances without removing the upstream debris. The big loser will prove to be the people and visitors of Big Sur and the taxpayers of California who will be footing the highway restoration bill for decades to come.

Oh, yes, FEMA has a PR problem without realizing it has a true disaster problem, but those folks are political and only react, and then only to events after the fact.

So what to do? Get real, fast. Do what you can to calmly but keenly educate yourself and your neighbors about the lessons learned from the 1972 mudflows, which were a mere pittance of things to come.

The mountains are coming down, busting through the highway, heading for the sea. Plan on it, stand aside, be safe, and watch the show from a safe place, a show that will be cosmic and life changing for all.

We are about to experience the definition of a paradigm shift, e.g., a fundamental change in what has been Big Sur since the highway was built in 1939. The 30 burned watersheds will regurgitate their guts as they have for eons, but this time with roadblocks, which will be pushed out with ease as the mudflows are disgorged, unimpeded, to the sea.

The gouging wounds to the highway will be deep and long lasting. Until the road is repaired and restored, the remaining residents will be the second generation homesteaders in a country as rugged as for the first homesteaders.

Then comes the sun as the canyons heal and the slopes grow fresh things to hold them in place. So in two years or so the Sur will become Big again, and the scourges of nature will recede from our memories.

In the meantime, my only concern is with the people who, in their innocence and ignorance, are living in harm’s way without a clue about the harm or the way. They need to be educated with being terrified by giving them the tools of awareness and preparation for survival. And, they need to be heartened, not frightened by change, adapt to the present passing moment, while planning for a future that will be the renewal of the next Big Sur. Today’s disaster is tomorrow’s opportunity. All this will come to pass.

Gary Koeppel

From: Michael Caplin [mcaplin at mbay dot net]
Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:35:36 -0700
To: Gary Koeppel [gary at coastgalleries dot com]
Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: FIRE + RAIN = MUDFLOWS --- The 1972 Big Sur Molera Fire & Mudslides

Gary,

Thank you for passing on the California Geology paper. Terrifying when you consider that '72 was after only 4,300 acres burned.

The question that keeps going through my mind is what can be done? Nothing feasible comes to mind.

I heard CalTrans is thinking about putting debris nets across some of the creeks, but it is difficult to imagine any net that is economically feasible holding back rapidly sluicing redwood trees and 15 or 20+ ton boulders mixed in with millions of pounds of mud.

Get out of the way seems to be the only thing that would work reliably, but moving buildings doesn't seem practical.

Have you heard any ideas that sound like they might work and are actually doable?

If not, pray for light rains.

Best,

Mike Caplin

Big Sur Mudflow is a 2mb pdf download

Survival, Renewal and the Big Sur University of the Future

August 1, 2008

To Big Sur Community Leaders and Friends:

To short-term Big Sur residents, the situations and solutions I describe below may appear to be overstated and unrealistic, but to long term residents, such as Bill Post and Don McQueen, I might be under stating the problems and over stating the remedies. My motives are simply to bring awareness of the problems facing Big Sur and suggest possible solutions for them and to use those problems as a springboard to launch a revolutionary idea for the future of Big Sur.

To that end, I offer the following observations and ideas to anyone interested. ---Gary Koeppel

Post-Fire Problems
• rebuilding lost homes
• restoring water systems
• recovering lost business
• recovering lost wages

Pre-Flood Preventions
• preparing for winter rains
• clearing watersheds
• planning for mudslides
• planning for road closures

Post-Flood Opportunities
• Convert the disasters of fire and flood into opportunities
• Unify and coordinate community and agency actions
• Adopt “sustainability” as the model for rebuilding Big Sur
• Rebuild Big Sur as an experimental sustainable community
• Establish Big Sur as the University of the Future

Background
The winter rains following the Basin Complex Fire may have the most devastating impacts on the highway, buildings, economy and lifestyle of Big Sur since the building of Highway One.

For eons, after a fire burned from the top of the coast ridges to the sea, the winter rains cleansed the canyon watersheds naturally, without impediments. In its timeless cycle, nature washed tons of ash, soil, rocks and trees into the sea.

The last extensive fire and canyon cleansing was in 1904, long before Highway One was constructed. But when the highway was completed in 1939, the road not only provided a man-made fire break, of sorts, it also created impediments to the natural drainage of the coastal watersheds. With the new highway came the second generation of settlers who built homes and businesses along the road, which became the Big Sur that we know today.

So, for the first time in 104 years, a forest fire has burned from the top of the Coast Ridge and has been stopped by Highway One. To varying degrees, the fire burned some 30 canyon watersheds along 23 miles of Big Sur coastline. The true devastation can only be seen from the top of the canyons where acre after denuded acre of steep hillsides wait silently for the winter rains.

For the first time since the building of the highway the canyons cannot cleanse themselves naturally to wash their tons of fire debris directly into the sea. We can assume that even the most moderate of winter rains will create problems ranging from mild to serious. Of course nobody can predict the extent of the disruptions to the water systems, watersheds, highway, dirt roads, structures, businesses and lifestyles, but common sense tells us to plan for the worst while hoping for the best.

Therefore, before the winter rains begin, I suggest it would be prudent to do the following as soon as possible:

(1) to replace problematic surface water systems with reliable wells that, hopefully, will be subsidized by FEMA disaster funding, thanks to the dedicated efforts of OES county officer Robert Clyburn who---on his own initiative---changed the designation of every private water system serving two or more homes to that of a “Public Utility”, which now makes nearly every water system in Big Sur eligible for FEMA funding, whether the systems are repaired or replaced by wells. In addition, the County and Coastal Commission have waived fees and expedited permits for disaster related repairs---including the drilling of wells to replace surface water systems.

This is government at its best and we should all acknowledge their actions.

(2) to remove as much debris from the canyons as possible in order to facilitate watershed drainage and minimize rockslides, mudslides and road closures----a task Caltrans has side-stepped via a short-sighted directive to clean out only those watersheds within Caltrans’ rights-of-way, which ignores the imminent drainage problems that threaten life, property, drainage failures and highway closures. This was a negligent and unresponsive directive that needs to be challenged and overturned immediately. The community leaders should appoint a citizen watchdog to oversee Caltrans and make it accountable to residents and visitor usage. As is, this directive is fiscally irresponsible and legally negligent. The cost to repair the highway will far outweigh the cost to undertake preventive maintenance.

(3) to prepare emergency contingency plans and supplies for victims of flooding and road closures now---long before they are needed, which is probably “in-the-works” by our county disaster agencies and non-profit organizations.

(4) to begin planning for the future of Big Sur as nature heals herself from the ravages of fire and flood and to explore the possibility of a sustainable Big Sur, an enlightened idea whose time has come.

I propose the following suggestions about how to solve the imminent problems facing us, to stimulate discussions and to offer a vision for the future of Big Sur.

The Facilitator
After meeting with county, state and federal agency representatives, all of whom are critically aware of the predicaments of Big Sur, it is sadly apparent that, despite their individual concerns and sincere empathy, that government, as we know it, is fraught with delays caused by the inability of most government agencies to function expeditiously on our behalf in order to mitigate imminent emergencies.

The already-complicated issues of post-fire water system replacements, pre-flood watershed restorations and post-flood drainage issues are further compounded by the lack of coordination of well-intended but overlapping agencies whose relationships and regulations are so complex that even the most energized citizens and public servants alike are doomed to inaction and failure.

One possible solution might be to request Governor Schwarzenegger to create a Big Sur Facilitator to act as liaison between the community and the relevant government agencies. The Facilitator’s mission would be to cut through red tape and circumvent bureaucratic roadblocks to expedite the recovery of Big Sur by coordinating the community’s needs with county, state and federal agency’s rules and regulations.

The Facilitator’s tasks would be to simplify coordinate and expedite future permits and funding for (a) replacing surface water systems with wells, (b) clearing upstream debris from watersheds, (c) creating an emergency plan for winter contingencies and even (d) assisting with the creation of the Big Sur of the Future.

Emergency Planning
Historically Big Sur people have always been independent and self-reliant, but natural forces can be overwhelming and assistance can be a blessing. It is imperative to initiate pre-disaster planning immediately, long before it is actually needed, by a coordinated group of citizens, public servants and non-profit organizations.

The following are simply suggestions for emergency preparedness:
1. To create “Helipod” containers for airlifting emergency water, food, medicine, supplies.
2. To utilize Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc., to store and load the supplies into Helipods.
3. To identify Helipads between watersheds where Helipods can be inserted by Helicopters.
4. To identify Heliport sites were Helicopters can land to evacuate people.
5. To identify temporary emergency housing available for immediate occupancy by evacuees.
6. To identify longer-term emergency housing for sustained periods of evacuations.
7. To prepare duffle bags containing personal necessities for evacuees.
8. To provide temporary emergency funds and employment counseling for evacuees.
9. To provide other services not yet listed here.

While hoping for the best and preparing for the worst, we must also keep in mind that nature heals herself, that next Spring the scorched hillside will be covered with wildflowers unseen for years and that, in a year or two, the canyons runoff will settle down and the streams will flow clearly again.

Big Sur as The University of the Future
It was the Italian artist Michelangelo who mused about life while carving a sculpture from a block of stone, “that every act of creation is preceded by an act of destruction”.

So is it with the forces of nature that have unleashed destructive forces on Big Sur. But these same forces can also provide the opportunity to create a Big Sur of the Future --- a sustainable community that retains its rich cultural heritage while also implementing new ideas that, without sounding presumptuous, could truly benefit the future of man.
Sustainable development is the use of our natural resources that meet our human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be fulfilled not only in the present but also indefinitely into the future.

Ancient indigenous cultures, throughout time, have always understood and employed the concept of sustainability. The American Indians respected all things and used only what they needed, knowing full well that they would need-to-live and live-to-need another day. These were the original conservationists, without the hypocrisy and intellectual depravity of those who have radicalized true conservation into a contemporary, radical ideologue called environmentalism.

The Big Sur University of the Future is an exciting concept that would improve the lives of residents and property owners as well as the millions of visitors who tour Big Sur every year. The disasters created by fire and flood is the stimulus for creating a Big Sur for the 21st Century.

Citizens and planners can use these disasters as an opportunity to implement evolutionary concepts for sustainable developments. For example, for the owners of the 30 homes lost in the recent fire, the Facilitator could coordinate grant funding to assist willing homeowners to rebuild their homes with sustainable technologies. Every lost home would be reborn as a home for the future.

At first glance this concept may appear idealistic but in reality it is practical and feasible. It is also the right thing to do, at the right time, and at the right place that can actually “make a difference”.

Do we have anything else better to do than improve life for present for future generations?

What if all future developments used sustainable technologies for affordable, easily-permitted development?

What if the updated Big Sur Land Use Plan included expedited permits for sustainable technologies?

What if grant funding were available to private homes and businesses for sustainable improvements?

What if the newly-created Facilitator could facilitate:
1. Affordable housing for eligible residents and employees?
2. Streamlined permits for repairs, improvements and new developments?
3. Subsidized wells and waste treatment systems to replace the old?
4. Expanded and improved private Visitor Serving Facilities?
5. Expanded and improved Caltrans rest stops, pull outs and viewing areas?
6. The list goes on....

    These goals could be coordinated by establishing an incorporated, non-for-profit, leadership entity, such as an eight-member Big Sur Citizen Council (BSCC) consisting of representatives from the Coast Property Owners’ Association (CPOA), the Chamber of Commerce (CofC), the Big Sur Grange (BSG), and two residents at large (RAL). Why? Because if Big Sur citizens are to have any voice at all about their destiny, we need to organize and become a single, representational voice. Otherwise, we will be relegated to an unincorporated, disorganized, voiceless community of nothingness.

These are only a few of the ideas that can be brought into the light of public awareness to create the Big Sur of the Future, a living model of sustainability, that:

(1) reveres and protects private property and private property rights
(2) respects public access on public lands only if their land use is properly managed
(3) honors its residents and employees with decent and affordable housing opportunities
(4) respects the traveling needs of Big Sur’s four million annual visitors
(5) supports intelligent structural and forest fire pre-planning
(6) balances the needs of the environment with those of human beings
(8) creates a living Model of the Future, the curriculum of which is sustainability
(9) inspires and enables people to embrace sustainable technologies and lifestyles

Just imagine what it would be like if:
• the community became a functional Model of the Future, a University of Sustainability?
• all future improvements and developments used sustainable technologies?
• the resident stewards became the de facto teachers-by-example of sustainability?
• the millions of Big Sur visitors became students of sustainability while touring our community?

What governmental agency, public servant or private citizen would not be proud to rise to such an occasion and participate in the creation of a sustainable future for an area as sacred as Big Sur?

The Big Sur University of the Future could combine ancient wisdom with modern technology to create a new consciousness about how lives and nature can work together to sustain life indefinitely. Such a forward-reaching experiment could catapult Big Sur into the twenty-first century; it could actually serve to preserve the community and save it from a future federal designation; it could educate the multitudes of visitors who come here from every country and walk of life about how to balance life with living.

Such a functional experiment in sustainability as a life style could have an impact reaching far beyond this time and place.

How gratifying it would be to participate in an experiment based on the creative use of new technologies while concurrently respecting a historic culture and a balance between man and his environs.

What an exciting opportunity for Big Sur’s residents, visitors and children of the future, whose legacy we hold so delicately in our hands today.

Gary Koeppel
August 1, 2008

A note from Bob Zobel

From: RZobel@aol.com [RZobel at aol dot com]
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 5:08 PM
To: Info at CPOA Big Sur
Subject: Re: FW: FIRE + RAIN = MUDFLOWS --- The 1972 Big Sur Molera Fire & Mudslides

Something that wasn't mentioned in the mudslide article was the temporary damning of the river at Juan Higuera Creek and the Big Sur River ( Actually this may have been in 1976). The area south of Juan Higuera Creek to the 90 degree turn in the river at Fernwood was turned into a lake for about half a day. The water floated the swinging bridge just north of the Catholic church, I know because I crossed it while it was floating. If I remember correctly this mass of water when it breached the blockage helped to move a lot of debris and silt accumulating at Pheneger Creek. A lot of water will accumulate in this area as I recall it is the greatest gradient in the river, i.e. from Fernwood north to Juan Higuera Creek.

The river was surveyed from North to South and from South to North and the surveyors met at our property and were about 10' off from each other. The actual high water mark was at the lower of these two surveys.

After the Marble Cone fire during October at the first significant rain I watched the river surge over 6 feet at this area and drop back to normal in just a couple of hours. That was sort of a flash flood occurrence and could be a very serious problem this year depending on the intensity of the early rain, especially with the area burned.

Another , now amusing but dangerous thing was the alert system placed as a series of horns or sirens along the Big Sur Valley. When the rain hit a certain intensity at the peaks, the sirens went off but no one could hear them as the intensity of rain in the valley was so noisy it drowned the sound of the system.

I also remember vividly the fear and insanity of the cutting of trees along the river and the bulldozing of the river channel. The scares are permanent and the river never returned to its original beds. Hans Ewalson and Vic Pfeiffer were at odds as to owned Pheneger Creek and I guess the bulldozers &/or the mud slides decided that. We need to be careful of what is done and the preparations as lots of mistakes, I decisions were made without really knowing the outcomes of the work.

That's my 2 cents. And thanks Gary, how fast it becomes history.

Bob Zobel

From: Paula Anita Walling [desktop1 at earthlink dot net]
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 7:55 AM
To: Info at CPOA Big Sur
Subject: Still Learning from the Past--too vivid, all this

That was 1977 indeed. That's when the river was at flood stage behind River Inn.
We watched it from the Outdoor Classroom that overlooks the river at Captain Cooper School.
And yes, I have a photo somewhere.
At night (which by the way is when most of the worst slides happen), Doug and I could hear
logs and picnic tables from Riverside and Big Sur Campgrounds hitting the bridge just downstream from River Inn--
punctuated by an occasional small propane tank. Those had a distinctively different sound! Don would remember
if any larger ones floated down. This is all stuff I've said before, but don't know if I've written. All the flats, from the State Park
to Jap Flats (Sorry, I don't know any other name for the place below Cooper where the Molera Fire started Maybe the flood will earn us one). Anyway, anything that was a flood plain in geologic history made a lake of itself for many days. It flooded the group campsite at the State Park. This brings to mind something that a number of folks had concerns about when it went in, and that's the sewage treatment facility just south of the entrance to the State Park. People expressed doubts about placing the leach field on that flat next to the river, a no-no if that were private property. Just a health heads up for those downstream during all this.

As to the siren, I respectfully have to differ. It went off twice that I know of--one of those times Doug and I and baby Noel were AT THE STATE PARK in my rust-red 1976 Volvo that had 198,000 miles on it. I've never driven so fast through the valley in my life. Doug thought
I'd get all three of us killed, but I had visions of a wall of water lapping up behind us and I just hauled! We heard all six sirens with no silence in between. We slid into that Apple Pie dirt road like someone had thrown us in a roller derby. I couldn't get high enough fast enough. Even at the house (first house on Apple Pie Ridge Road--bordered by Pheneger) I wondered if we were high enough, but finally reasoned that we just had to be. Turned out that the rain sensor had to be re-calibrated. The next time, I was home when it went off. The work they did to get the logs in six foot lengths made all the difference. Flood, yes. Flash flood, no. No question there was enough material to cause a logjam in the Gorge. That certainly goes for now--in spades!
Bob is spot on as to the bend in the river south of Juan Higuera and the potential for causing a blockage. Anything that blocks the flow can be considered armed and dangerous. That's one reason the Grange had problems. Mostly though the berm and sandbags protected the integrity of the structure. Water got inside though--I think in '72 and '77. I remember the worries that the bank was saturated and the area on the river side kept sloughing off. We thought it could take the little house behind the Grange (which is no place to be once the
first rain cloud forms).
Paula

Anita Alan

P.O. Box 22-2424
Carmel, CA 93922
anita at anitaalan dot com