A significant deadline is approaching for residents who lost their homes in the Palisades and Eaton fires to determine how debris will be removed from their properties and officials are urging those impacted to be prepared to make that decision by the end of the month.

Los Angeles County officials gathered on Wednesday, March 12 to give updates on recovery following the Eaton and Palisades fires, sharing progress that has been made on debris removal in the more than two months since the fires and asking residents to make final decisions regarding removal before March 31.

Those affected by the fires have received $86 million total in individual assistance from FEMA and $1.5 billion in Small Business Administration loans have been approved, according to L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

Barger expressed her appreciation for the speed of the recovery process thus far, but says there is more that can be done.

“I want to emphasize that we can and should continue pushing to scale up our efforts,” Barger said. “Residents deserve quick, efficient work by the county so that we can work through the debris removal process and get rebuilding under way.”

L.A. County will increase resources to ramp up the review of right-of-entry forms, which are needed from residents for Phase 2 of debris removal. Residents can opt in to free removal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or choose to hire a private company.

Mark Pestrella, the director of L.A. County Public Works, noted that many residents are still looking at both options for debris removal, submitting right-of-entry forms but not finalizing signatures to complete the process.

“I get it, what people are doing is trying to decide who can do this faster, who can do this quicker, because I know that residents want to have this done as quickly as possible, so they’re considering their options, private or public,” Pestrella said. “Whichever way you go, we would like you to make a commitment to that by March 31.”

The county has already processed and sent 4,000 right-of-entry forms to the Corps and plans to send another 1,000 by Thursday, Pestrella said. Roughly 9,000 forms have been submitted by residents so far.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have completed debris removal of 242 parcels and are actively working on another 649 parcels, according to Colonel Eric Swenson of the Corps. The work of Phase 2 includes various processes such as primary debris removal, hydromulching, erosion control, tree removal and final walk-throughs.

If validated ROEs have been received and processed, residents will receive a call 3-5 days out from debris removal at their property.

“We’re building crews every day and so we’ll be making more and more calls every day,” Swenson said.

Over 2,354 properties initially deferred from Phase 1 cleanup to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Phase 2 for safety reasons have now been cleared by the Corps.

Swenson emphasized residents’ options regarding tree removal from by the Corps after many Altadena residents expressed concerns about the future of the city’s much-loved tree canopy.

Swenson said the Corps has further developed a marking system for trees as the agency works with arborists to assess them. Blue dots and barcodes mean a tree has been deemed hazardous. A yellow dot at the base and a yellow ribbon tied around the trunk indicates that a homeowner has waived the removal.

If a tree is reassessed by a higher level of arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture, it will be remarked with a brown dot. If trees are waived of removal or reassessed, barcodes placed on them will be removed and the changes will be recorded by the Corps to ensure the trees remain.

Another bout of rain on the forecast this week has prompted some evacuation warnings in burn scar areas, including all of the Palisades and Franklin fire burn areas.

“We do expect that we’re going to have some debris flow in this event, meaning we will see debris in streets at the locations that have already been identified. We expect traffic issues. We expect unsafe conditions for driving and therefore we are shutting down PCH beginning at noon today and local mountain roads will also be closed by 6 p.m. this evening,” Pestrella said.

Pacific Coast Highway will be closed from Chautauqua Boulevard and Carbon Beach Terrace. During previous rains, mudslides were seen on the highway.

“Our fire-impacted communities need to be on alert,” Barger said.

L.A. County Public Works said they have made all necessary preparations for the incoming rains.

Some flows are expected from Sierra Madre Dam, but it will go over a spillway and into channels down below and go into the San Gabriel complex, Pestrella said.

“We do not have any facilities the county maintains that are not ready for this event. They are all ready and have capacity,” Pestrella said.