Southern California braces for possible MUDSLIDES after historic wildfires destroy 1,100 homes and cause $300million worth of damage
Firefighters in Southern California have largely doused one of the largest wildfires in state history, but residents may not enjoy much relief
Experts said the flames are laying the groundwork for the next disaster – mudslides
The intense fire is burning away vegetation that holds the soil in place and baking a waxy layer into the earth that prevents the water from sinking
With one heavy rain, the soil above this waterproof layer can become saturated, start to slide in hilly areas and transform into something catastrophic
DAILYMAIL.COM
2 January 2018
Firefighters in Southern California have gotten control of what was one of the largest wildfires in state history, but residents may not enjoy much relief as experts said the flames are laying the groundwork for the next disaster – mudslides.
The intense fire is burning away vegetation that holds the soil in place and baking a waxy layer into the earth that prevents the water from sinking more than a few inches into the ground, experts said.
With one heavy rain, the soil above this waterproof layer can become saturated, start to slide in hilly areas and transform into something catastrophic.
‘Pretty much anywhere there’s a fire on a steep slope, there’s cause for concern,’ Jason Kean, research hydrologist for the US Geological Survey, said in a telephone interview.
And the Thomas Fire, which has burned 280,000 acres and destroyed nearly 1,100 homes in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, is definitely in landslide country.
The estimated damage of the fire is $300million.
‘If we get hard rain, there are going to be terrible landslides in the burn areas,’ Carla D’Antonio, chairman of University of California, Santa Barbara’s environmental studies program, said in an email.
‘It doesn’t take a lot of rain to get the soil and rock moving, so to have burned soil on top of this and no significant plant cover creates huge potential for landslides,’ she added.
Among the cities at risk is Santa Barbara, with 92,000 people, as well as the smaller communities of Carpinteria, Ojai and Summerland.
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