LAKE COUNTY >> Although the flames were extinguished, survivors of the Valley Fire still face potential dangers in the form of landslides and flooding, should El Nino rains arrive.
In a release from the California Department of Conservation (CDOC), citizens — especially those near burn areas — were warned to be vigilant of landslides caused by the coming El Nino rainfall. For the Cobb Mountain, Hidden Valley, and Middletown areas, the threat comes from two factors: burned vegetation and the amount of debris left over from the blaze.
Now that the forest above the soil is gone, there is nothing to absorb the rainwater before it hits the ground. Furthermore, the soil was baked by the extreme heat, making it dry and likely to be loosened by the impacts of heavy rains.
According to Scott DeLeon, Lake County’s Director of Public Works and Water Resources, the county is working with CalFire and other agencies to prepare for such an event. Currently, the county is working on an early warning system in collaboration with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, the National Weather Service, and the Hidden Valley Community Services District.
Throughout the burn area hydroseeding has been laid near the edges of potential landslide sites to prevent erosion. The green foam can be seen on State Route 175 south on the way to Middletown.
Because these landslides will be hard to predict, DeLeon said, the only way of knowing when they will occur is to go out to threat areas whenever it rains. When the county received approximately an inch of rain on Tuesday, personnel from public works went out and watched the burn sites for any activity.
No matter the magnitude of a slide, the CDOC said in its release that people should not take these events lightly.
“Landslides are much more common, and while not on the same scale as earthquakes or tsunamis, they can cause very significant localized damage,” state geologist Dr. John Parrish said in the release. “Furthermore, while there’s often some warning and time to get out of the path of the larger slides, the speed and force of some smaller ones can be compared to a speeding train.”
If heavy rains come as the National Weather Service expects, the danger can be multiplied by flooding as water could carry with it a lot of rubble and fallen trees. CalOES told DeLeon that runoff created by precipitation was predicted to be increased by 50 percent.
This means than any rainy day’s severity can be significantly strengthened, which presents a large risk to places like Hidden Valley, where 215 homes sit on a 100-year floodplain, DeLeon said.
“We don’t know what the watershed will do,” he said. “We’re planning for those conditions.”
He encourages other people to plan as well and the county has acquired resources to help them. Nearly 5,000 sandbags were given to the Middletown Fire Department for citizens to pick up at any one of their stations.
County officials also stress the use of Nixle and to follow the county’s social media accounts.
“Folks need to be prepared. They need to know that these events are elevated,” DeLeon said. “They need to utilize technologies, that way they are able to get that information firsthand instead of waiting to hear it from someone else.”
