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California wildfires: more rain to aid firefighters while raising flood risk California wildfires: rains hamper searchers as ash turns to paste
(about 7 hours later)
More rain is forecast for northern California over the weekend, boosting efforts to extinguish wildfires that have raged there for two weeks but raising the risk of flash floods and landslides. Volunteers searching for human remains in the wake of the wildfire that destroyed the California city of Paradise were delayed in their work on Friday, when a downpour turned ash from the fire into a thick paste, making it more difficult to find fragments of bone.
The weather is also expected to complicate efforts to locate victims of the Camp fire, which virtually obliterated the city of Paradise, 175 miles north-east of San Francisco. Craig Covey, who leads a search team from southern California’s Orange county, said those looking through the devastation in Paradise and two nearby communities were not told to stop but that he chose to take a break until the rain cleared. Heavy rain and strong winds were knocking over trees, raising the risk they could fall on searchers, he said.
Between 1in and 3in of rain is expected to fall between Friday and Sunday, adding to the 3in that already fell this week, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. “It’s just not worth it. We’re not saving lives right now, we’re recovering lives,” Covey said.
“Flash floods and debris flows will be a particular threat in the wildfire burn areas,” the NWS said, warning of the risk of flash floods through late Friday. “Heavy rainfall at times is possible over the burn areas with the greatest threat expected today.” The deadliest US wildfire in the past 100 years has killed at least 84 people and more than 560 are still unaccounted for. Despite the inclement weather, more than 800 volunteers searched for remains on Thanksgiving and again on Friday, two weeks after flames swept through the Sierra Nevada foothills, authorities said.
That risk is low for thousands of evacuees who are sheltering outside areas prone to mudslides. Covey’s team of about 30 had been working for several hours on Friday morning before stopping and returning to a staging area with hot coffee and food under two blue tents. An electric heater provided warmth. While the rain was making everybody colder and wetter they were keeping the mission in mind, volunteer Chris Stevens said, standing under an awning as the team waited out a stretch of heavy rain.
At least 84 people died in the Camp fire, making it one of the deadliest US wildfires. Two-thirds of the victims named so far were aged over 65. As many as 560 people are unaccounted for. That number has fluctuated, hitting a high of more than 1,200 over last weekend. The cause of the fire, which destroyed more than 13,500 homes, remains under investigation. Late on Thursday, officials said the blaze was 95% contained across 154,000 acres. “Everyone here is super committed to helping the folks here,” he said.
“All containment lines continued to hold throughout the day with the rain assisting in extinguishing hot spots and smoldering fire,” the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) said. Two days of showers have complicated the search but also helped nearly extinguish the blaze, said Josh Bischof, operations chief for the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire), adding that once the rain clears, state officials will be able to determine if the blaze is fully out.
More than 800 volunteers and police officers spent Thanksgiving searching for remains. The Butte county sheriff, Kory Honea, has said the rain will make going through debris more difficult. He has also warned that as all that remains of victims may be “very small bone fragments”, some may never be found. The Camp fire ignited on 8 November and destroyed nearly 19,000 buildings, most of them homes. That is more than the worst eight fires in California history combined, Cal Fire said, with thousands of people displaced.
The county has crews working around the clock, laying sandbags and hay to prevent debris from burned homes polluting the water supply. Volunteers interrupted by rain Friday found other ways to help. Covey and several team members took two big brown bags of lunch to 64-year-old Stewart Nugent, who stayed in his home and fought off flames with a garden hose, a sprinkler and a shovel. He’s been there for two weeks with his cat, Larry.
“We’re doing everything we can to prepare for this,” Butte county assistant director for public works Radley Ott told KRCR-TV. The first winter storm to hit California has dropped 2in to 4in of rain over the burn area since it began Wednesday, said Craig Shoemaker with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Sacramento. The NWS issued a warning for possible flash flooding and debris flows from areas scarred by major fires in northern California, including the areas burned in Paradise.
Hundreds forced to flee Paradise spent Thanksgiving in warehouses in the nearby city of Chico. Celebrity chefs were among volunteers cooking Thanksgiving meals. Shoemaker said the rain had been steady, but forecasters expected the heaviest showers in the afternoon.
The Woolsey fire, which killed three people and threatened the wealthy beachfront enclave of Malibu near Los Angeles, was declared 100% contained on Wednesday. “So far we’ve been seeing about a quarter-inch of rain falling per hour,” he said. “We need to see an inch of rain per hour before it could cause problems.”
He said the rain was expected to subside by midnight, followed by light showers Saturday.
CaliforniaCalifornia
WildfiresWildfires
Natural disasters and extreme weatherNatural disasters and extreme weather
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