Wildfires are still burning in Los Angeles County and with rain in the forecast, those burn scars present a new hazard.
Pat McElroy with Project for Resilient Communities lived through the Montecito 1/9 debris flow and says a similar event could happen under the right conditions in L.A.
"They’re getting a handle on the fire but depending on the strength of the storm, they don't know what they'll be looking at," McElroy said.
Southern California is no stranger to flooding, debris flows, and landslides.
"These things have been happening for millennia. The difference now is how many more people live there right now," McElroy said.
Santa Barbara County Flood Control's Matt Griffin says the correlation between fires and flooding is well known.
"With the fires they've had down there, the conditions are ripe for debris flow," Griffin said.
But wildfire burn scars are just one part of the equation.
"The other, of course, is rainfall and rainfall intensity," Griffin said.
Soil in burned areas is hydrophobic, meaning it doesn’t absorb moisture. So when it rains, the extra water can cause flooding, landslides, or something bigger, according to Griffin.
"And debris flow is like, it's like a wave. I mean, you have a big face of debris and then it's smaller behind," Griffin explained.
Basically, it is a tsunami of rock and mud.
"It's a different animal, and they have to understand that it's not a survivable event if you're in it," McElroy said.
In anticipation of upcoming storms, Governor Gavin Newsom has deployed specialized debris flow teams, equipment, and hundreds of personnel to burned areas of Southern California.
"But the fact is, there's no engineered improvements out there that's going to be 100%, you know, foolproof. Mother Nature always gets a vote," Griffin said.
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