Calif. wildfire-area communities prepare for rain

[October 13, 2009]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- An unusually strong October storm is bearing down on California, prompting residents in areas burned by recent wildfires to prepare for heavy rain that could send mud and debris flowing into canyon and foothill neighborhoods.

Residents of La Canada Flintridge, near the barren Southern California hillsides that the massive Station Fire scorched this summer, shoveled sand into bags Monday. The heaviest rain was scheduled to arrive Tuesday afternoon and evening.

The Pacific storm will drop 3 to 6 inches in Santa Barbara County, where an 8,700-acre fire burned in May, before it moves on to the San Gabriel Mountains, where the U.S. Geological Survey recently warned of massive debris flows near the areas burned in September, forecasters said.

Rain started to fall in the foothills of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo late Monday night, according to the National Weather Service.

Estimates for Los Angeles County mountains and foothills ranged from 1.5 inches to 4 inches, with the heaviest period Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Besides heavy rain, the storm will also pack some powerful winds on the coast between Point Reyes and Big Sur, and several feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada, meteorologists said.

"All the ingredients necessary for a big rain event are in place," the NWS said.

Flash flood watches were issued for 11 counties up and down the state.

"There's really nothing else to do but wait and see what happens," said David Wacker, a 25-year resident of La Crescenta, one of a string of communities along the foot of the steep San Gabriel Mountains.

Preparations to prevent storm damage have included clearing debris from flood-control basins designed to catch material flowing out of mountain drainages.

Debris flows occur because the ground in recently burned areas has little ability to absorb rain, which instead instantly runs off, carrying ash, mud, boulders and vegetation.

Sandbags and concrete barriers called K-rail were placed on streets in suburbs northeast of Los Angeles to try to direct any debris flows away from homes.

"Those barriers will be there all winter and into next year," said County Fire Battalion Chief Mike Brown. "Regrowth on those steep slopes is going to take a while so we'll have these problems for the next five to seven years."

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On the Net:

Wildfires and Debris Flows:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/
3106/pdf/FS-3106.pdf

[Associated Press; By JOHN ANTCZAK]

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