California rain brings mudslide fears, evacuations

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER and GILLIAN FLACCUS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Heavy rain from a powerful Pacific storm swept through parched California on Tuesday, providing relief from a three-year drought but prompting evacuations in wildfire-scarred communities threatened by mudslides and flooding.

The rain began falling overnight Monday in Northern California, but the heaviest downpours were in Southern California, where recent burns have denuded slopes of the vegetation that helps hold soil in place. Traffic was snarled, and some flights at Los Angeles and San Francisco airports were delayed.

The National Weather Service said up to 6 inches of rain was possible in parts of Southern California by the time the storm ends Wednesday.

In Camarillo Springs, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, gushing water and muddy debris began pouring from adjacent hillsides before noon Tuesday, prompting the mandatory evacuation of about 75 homes. A mudslide in the same Ventura County community on Halloween buried one home in mud 3 feet deep, the result of a wildfire that burned the area more than a year ago.

FULL story at link.



Don Panza looks up as the rain starts coming down at his Silverado Canyon, Calif. home., as a powerful Pacific storm swept through California on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014. Panza was concerned about the threat of mudslide. (AP Photo/The Orange County Register, Mindy Schauer) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141203/us--california_storm-5d8eea42cc.html

[olddots]

1. our infrastructure here is non existent

No drainage , no run offs and no forethought .It never fails every 5 years the place floats away because nobody wants to pay taxes that would pay for things like protection from nature's little
reminders .

[SoapBox]

2. In the South Bay of Los Angeles...

Slow steady rain all day today.

Now it needs to stop and repeat every couple of weeks...for about a year at least.

I grew up in Oregon and hate rain...but I'll make exceptions because we are so desperate.

[C Moon]

3. Southern California forgot what rain was:

I went out at lunch. It was raining, so I turned on my headlights on.
I drove no more than 100 yards, when a guy in a mini van flashed his lights at me (telling me my headlights were on).
I got to a stop light, and noticed nobody (except a few) had them on. It's not a law, but it is safer to drive with headlights in the rain. Just saying.

I can't imagine what kind of money windshield wiper companies are making today.

[truedelphi]

4. Hmm,I thought it was a newly enacted CA law that if you have your wipers on,

Then you must have your headlights on.

I've had several friends tell me all last winter to remember and have headlights on if my wipers are wiping.

The fine is excesive also - over two hundred bucks if a cop stops you due to yr headlights not being on.

[C Moon]

5. Oh. I just read it's not the law. Should have checked my sources.

When I was out driving today, I would say 75% of the people didn't have their headlights on. And I thought with newer cars, they'd go on automatically. Maybe that's the problem: we're so used to everything being done for us now.

[OnlinePoker]

6. In Canada, we have mandatory daytime running lights on all cars

I don't know how many times I was flashed by people when I drove through the States. I guess it shows they work because people could see me coming.