After days of heavy rain in Southern California, Duke’s in Malibu – a restaurant that’s survived two fires in two months – has closed again, this time due to damages from a recent mudslide.
The well-known restaurant located at 21150 Pacific Coast Highway recently had to close during the Palisades Fire, and the Franklin Fire before that.
On the night the Palisades Fire erupted, Duke’s served as a shelter for burned and injured victims, including both civilians and firefighters.
Now, mudslides from the Palisades burn scars have the restaurant’s doors closed and employees out of work, once again.
“I mean triple whammy if you think about it,” Jimmy Chavez, general manager of Duke’s, told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe. “We’re extremely fortunate to have survived the fires, we can’t take that for granted – how many neighbors lost their homes, but it’s the mudslide that took us out this time.”
The area around the restaurant is covered in mud and, although crews have been working tirelessly to clear it during the last couple of days, fire officials say to be warned.
Even though the rain has stopped and the sun has been shining, officials said these hillsides could continue to slip because the burn scars are saturated.
“Las Flores Canyon here turned into a river that came into our parking lot and flooded just about every entrance that we have,” said Chavez. “We flooded back in 2011 which was pretty substantial, but this is much worse.”
In addition to these damages, Caltrans placed a soft closure on the PCH on Saturday morning between Chautauqua Boulevard and Carbon Beach Terrace.
This section of the PCH has one lane open with a 25 mph limit, and it’s only open to emergency responders, contractors and utilities, according to Caltrans.
