Important Notice to Tujunga Canyon Residents

Because so many of our readers live in the Sunland-Tujunga community we wanted to share the following information from the US Forest Service, in advance of the coming storm, as a public service.

FROM THE U S FOREST SERVICE To Tujunga Canyon Residents

Temporary Permit Suspension for October 13-14, 2009 Storm Event

Dear Permittee:

As you know, the issues surrounding the Station Fire continue beyond just the flames being put out. Post-fire studies indicate that rain events could result in large amounts of uncontrolled water and sediment movement which pose a major threat to life and property.

The Forest is currently finalizing a Storm Event Evacuation Plan that covers all the people and property within the recent fire perimeters on the Angeles National Forest. This plan will cover Forest Service employees and stations as well as permittees and the permitted improvements. However, the plan will not be finalized in time for this predicted rain event that is due to arrive on Tuesday October 13, 2009. But the baseline for this plan is a 48-hour notification of affected parties when a weather event is forecasted.

The Forest is committed to protecting life above property and is activating the plan as it stands now to ensure that people are not in harm’s way when the storm hits the Forest. There is a prediction of 1-2 inches of rainfall from this storm.

With the lack of any protection measures in pat that timelace, the Forest will error on the side of caution as it relates to public safety. The Forest is initiating its 48-hour notification with the expectation that people within the affected areas will be out within 24-36 hours. Basically, permits are suspended and no permittee will be allowed at their permitted area effective Tuesday October 13, 2009 until the event is over and it is safe to return.

I know this is sudden and out-of-the blue, and I wish we had more time to discuss the overall plan with you but the weather is running this show right now. Hopefully, the rain event will be a bust and we can discuss what we learned from this first run of the Forest Evacuation Plan. We were fine-tuning the Plan to be more selective of the areas to be evacuated but since that information is not available yet, we have to approach it on a broad scale approach. Please be patient with us as we try and make this work for all of us this winter.