Heavy rains expected to hinder search for
victims of California wildfire
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[November 21, 2018]
By Elijah Nouvelage
CHICO, Calif. (Reuters) - Heavy rains are
forecast to begin on Wednesday in northern California, where they are
likely to hinder search teams sifting through ash and rubble for the
remains of victims of the deadliest wildfire in the state's history.
As much as six inches (15 cm) of rain was expected to fall over the next
several days around the town of Paradise, a community of nearly 27,000
people, many of them retirees, that was largely obliterated by the Camp
Fire. The fire claimed at least 81 lives and left hundreds missing.
The storm will help firefighters still battling the blaze, but will
create more misery to the thousands of residents left homeless by the
disaster, which destroyed thousands of homes in and around Paradise.
Some of the homeless are camping rather than staying in emergency
shelters.
"There are people still living in tents," Sacramento-based NWS
meteorologist Eric Kurth said in a telephone interview. "That's
certainly not going to be pleasant with the rain, and we might get some
wind gusting up to 40 to 45 miles per hour (64 to 72 km per hour)."
Forecasters said the rains might also cause rivers of mud and debris to
slide down flame-scorched slopes stripped of vegetation. The fire has
burned across 151,000 acres (61,107 hectares) of the Sierra foothills
north of San Francisco.
But because of mass evacuations since the fire erupted on Nov. 8, few
people were believed to be in harm's way from any debris flow, according
to National Weather Service (NWS) hydrologist Cindy Matthews.
She also said the volcanic soil and relatively shallow slopes found in
the fire zone mean the ground is unlikely to become saturated enough for
hillsides to give way to landslides.
However, authorities in Southern California warned residents in areas
burned by another pair of wildfires in the foothills and mountains
northwest of Los Angeles to be wary of mud-flow hazards from the same
storm this week. One of those blazes, the Woolsey Fire, killed three
people.
MORE VICTIMS
The remains of two more victims were found in a structure in Paradise on
Tuesday, raising the death toll to 81. The Butte County Sheriff's Office
has tentatively identified 56 of the victims whose remains have so far
been recovered.
Meanwhile, the missing-persons list compiled by the sheriff's office was
revised to 870 names late on Tuesday, from a high of more than 1,200
over the weekend.
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Missing persons fliers are seen on a wall as a man disinfects a door
handle at a Red Cross shelter at Bidwell Junior High School in
Chico, California, U.S. November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
The number has fluctuated widely over the past week as more
individuals were reported missing and some initially unaccounted for
either turned up alive or were confirmed dead.
The number of residents needing temporary shelter was unclear, but
as many as 52,000 people were under evacuation orders at the height
of the firestorm last week.
The Camp Fire incinerated some 12,600 homes in and around Paradise,
mostly during the first night of the blaze. Gale-force winds drove
flames through drought-parched scrub and trees into the town with
little warning, forcing residents to flee for their lives.
Buffer lines have been carved around 75 percent of the fire's
perimeter and full containment is expected by the end of the month,
according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection.
Smoke from the fires has drifted across the country to the East
Coast, where it left a brownish-orange haze that was credited with
unusually vibrant sunsets on Monday.
The cause of the Camp and Woolsey fires is under investigation, but
electric utilities reported equipment problems around the time both
blazes broke out.
(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee)
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