CLASS CANCELLED!!

Holy Grail of Email Announcements. I love this fire.

Malibu Canyon Fire Update for 4 p.m., Monday, Oct 22

Pepperdine officials have announced that it will not hold classes on the Malibu campus on Tuesday, October 23. Events scheduled for Tuesday on the Malibu campus have also been cancelled as the University continues to work closely with local, county, and state fire officials in response to the Malibu Canyon fire. Only critical SUPPORT personnel should report for work.

All Pepperdine campuses outside Malibu remain open for classes.

All roads leading to the Malibu campus are closed at this time. Information about current road closures is available on the road condition hotline at (310) 506-ROAD (7623).

At the present time, students, faculty, and staff on the Malibu campus remain safe and it is recommended that they not leave campus.

From President Benton:

We have made the decision to cancel classes for one additional day, Tuesday, October 23. This will inconvenience some and delight others, but the decision arises from our assessment of what is safe practice in our present circumstances.

Roads to and from Malibu are subject to closure without notice and are simply unpredictable. Indeed, we could wait until tomorrow morning to make this decision, but the fact is that PCH and Malibu Canyon are not at all likely to be open and we know that now. Other campus activities on Tuesday will need to be rescheduled, as well.

Our campus continues to be quiet and secure. The firefighters will return this evening for rest in preparation for what appears to be a fire that will persist in this area for a while. In Southern California there are about 17 separate fires burning and that is taxing fire assets. Our small contribution will be to ask you to stay off the roads and to pray, if you will, for those in harm’s way. Malibu Fire containment is estimated at 10%.

Many are asking about when roads will open. We simply don’t know. Our experience is that these decisions are made in a way to make enforcement easy: either the road is open or it is not. Negotiation at the roadblock takes time and also requires a tailored, car-by-car response. When the fire is better contained roadblocks will be taken down. Please check the Road Condition Hotline: (310) 506-ROAD

I hope this information is helpful. When more information is available we will share it with you.

Students: I would like to communicate with family members and others who might be interested in how things are going. I do not have a database for that and so I am asking that you forward this message and my earlier message to those whom you believe will be interested.

Also, please be reminded of the address of Pepperdine’s Emergency Blog: http://emergency.pepperdine.edu/