Hundred Year Old Santa Monica Trees Fall on Cars, Houses in Latest Storm

3.16: Work crews could be seen in Santa Monica 90402 cutting up trees that fell in the latest of a series of storms. In one case they smashed a 25 year old BMW. "Claim Filed," a sign said in the window of the smashed vehicle.

The 2023 series of storms is at least a one in 25 year event. Rain totals for Los Angeles are above 24 inches. In a typical year, the County receives about 14.5 inches of rain. There have been 11 "atmospheric river" rainstorms so far this year, events where a Pacific generated stormdrops heavy rain in a relatively large area of California. The effect on local trees is evident.

Two fallen trees that we saw appeared to be in excess of one hundred years old.

The County of Los Angeles tweeted an appeal to the public to report problems such as fallen trees. "Is #LARain causing problems in your area? Call

@lacopublicworks at 800-675-4357 to report fallen trees, traffic signal outages and flooding in County roads."