PCH reopens after fire closure, just in time for the holiday weekend

MALIBU, CALIF.— It’s dawn patrol at Surfrider Beach, a coveted time for eager surfers to paddle out for a chance to catch the world-famous right-hand point break wave. But on this overcast summer day, only a couple dozen people bob on their surfboards, waiting for the perfect swell.

“This is like having it empty,” surfer Maria Shen says, about the turnout. “We can, on a day that’s a little bit bigger than this, have a hundred people trying to get the same wave.”

Since the Palisades Fire in January, the portion of the Pacific Coast Highway running through the burn scar has been closed to all but residents, emergency responders, and construction crews, speeding up the massive clean-up but inadvertently isolating the beach city of Malibu.

That’s all changed just in time for Memorial Day weekend, when city officials announced the reopening of Pacific Coast Highway, known locally as “PCH”, just in time for the three-day weekend.

“Hallelujah, Memorial Day weekend and they opened up the road!” rejoiced surfer Milton Willis, who has been living in Malibu for the last 5 years.

He’s glad PCH is reopening, even if it means more crowded waves, because it also means that the area is starting to heal from the fire that killed 12 people and burned over 23 thousand acres.

“It’s tragic and you pray for the guys that lost their lives and lost their homes,” Willis says. “But you can see that progress is happening.”

That progress includes over 60% of lots cleared of debris by the Army Corps of Engineers. Still, twisted metal beams, rusted car carcasses, and charred palm trees remain visible from PCH, which is itself a little worn down after months of use by heavy construction vehicles.

“Definitely spooky,” says cyclist Alec Radtke, who risked punctured tires to be one of the first to cycle the reopened stretch, which he used to ride before the fires. This time, he noticed ocean vistas he had never seen before, where multistory buildings used to block the view.

“It was super bizarre,” Radtke says of the experience. “It was a little bit dusty; obviously a lot of heavy trucks. It looks like a lot of the structures have been sort of cleaned out but there’s a lot of free-standing walls and empty debris, and that was definitely an emotional section of the ride.”

At the Malibu Country Mart, general manager Stephen McNelis says the shopping center has been “kind of a ghost town.” He’s hopeful this weekend will be the start of a robust summer season.

It wasn’t just the Palisades Fire, but the Franklin Fire, which came right up to the complex in December. Businesses lost the pivotal Christmas holiday shopping season, then were hit again by the Palisades Fire and PCH closure one month later.

“We persevered and got through it,” says McNelis, who noted that only few stores here went out of business. With PCH open again, “I think it’s just going to keep getting better.”

Frank Milliren, who works at a high-end shoe store in the plaza, isn’t so sure. “The fires took a tremendous toll on the business,” he says. And he questions whether travelers on the reopened road will have the community’s best interest at heart.

“A lot of that traffic will just be people taking in the terrible devastation,” he says, echoing concerns from some locals that the PCH will bring lookie-loos, looters, and outsiders insensitive to the trauma locals are just beginning to grapple with.

“A lot of my childhood friends who have lived in Malibu their whole lives, they’ve had to move out of town,” says resident Emma Carroll. “It’s just a very different town now after everything that’s happened.”

Carroll, who is a supervisor at Malibu Village Books, says the store lost a “massive” amount of money over the last five months.

“It has been so, so difficult for all of us in this shopping center,” she says. “Malibu business have been struggling, and we’re all really eager to get some foot traffic in and spend the summer with some of these visitors.”

But she’s “very, very hopeful” that this weekend will bring some much-needed customers.

“It’s Memorial Day weekend,” she laughs. “Anything could happen.”