Posted on 01/10/2018 3:16:56 AM PST by sodpoodle
LOS ANGELES - A storm that slammed a California coastal community is over. The search for its victims is not. Authorities in Santa Barbara County were still trying to reach new areas and dig into the destruction to find dead, injured or trapped people after a powerful mud flow swept away dozens of homes. At least 13 people were confirmed dead Tuesday, at least 25 were injured and at least 50 had to be rescued by helicopters. Those numbers could increase when the search is deepened and expanded Wednesday, with a major search-and-rescue team arriving from nearby Los Angeles County and help from the Coast Guard and National Guard along with law enforcement.
They'll focus first on finding survivors. "Right now our assets are focused on determining if anyone is still alive in any of those structures that have been damaged," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. The sheriff said "at least several dozen homes that have been either destroyed or severely damaged, and likely many other ones are in areas that are as-yet inaccessible."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
This feeds the fire (dry)/ mudslide (wet) cycle. The destroyed vegetation is no longer available to provide stability to the soil on the very steep hills when it gets saturated from the heavy rains.
This cycle will probably continue forever, whether the cable (fake) news channels cover it or not.
....this goes back to MOONBEAM... saving money by not letting the forest services do their job of clearing the forests of dead wood.
Guess he needs the money to feed,housed, and educate the illegals,
a democratic voting base...
Last month the “experts” were predicting long-term drought for the entire state of California. But that’s ok... that doesn’t mean they’re wrong about their 100-year-out predictions.
If they removed (bulldozed) the overgrowth before the fire season there would still be mudslides now. As the previous poster pointed out, this is the way it is in CA. There’s a reason those very new mountains and foothills are so rounded. There’s no way to stop the hillside degradation until you get to ancient bedrock, like here in the east or other parts of the west.
Prayers up.
They dont “BULLDOZE” brush unless it is land clearing for building.
They have forestry machines that grind up that stuff and leave to roots in place which leaves stability.
Most of that crap is brush, and according to the guys I know here in AZ, there was about 50 years of overgrowth in those areas.
You’re not going to find anyone more critical of forest policy and Brown than I am, but most people don’t realize that these California fires mostly have tree damage as collateral damage.... the urban boundary throughout the states consists primarily of grassland. These are vast grass fires that engulf whatever forested pockets are around. Record wet last winter then no measurable rain in LA from March until now gets you what we got
Question: how did the fire in Santa Barbara start?
I don’t know. Wikipedia says its under investigation still. Conflicting reports as to whether a power pylon failed and set fire to brush and grass in a canyon. In order I’d guess that the causes of these fires tend to be careless ignition, i.e., cigarettes or others, homeless encampments or other illegal fires, dry lighting, with maybe powerline failure and arson as about equal. My initial comment went to the primary fuel, not how fires are started. I live in Northern California. I had a rural property, and accidentally set fire to a field of about an acre and a half that had been mowed to about 2 inches. Moderate
breeze. Even on that miniscule level, the grass fire that took out that field in five minutes was a fearsome thing to behold. Luckily, there was not a strong wind and the field was bounded on two sides by roads, and a canal and a pond on the other. If there had been a strong wind the embers could have set fire to untold thousands of acres.
Thank you for your response.
Well, how can it be that no one has thought of this before?
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