Earth, wind and rain
Homeowners deal with more wet weather and mudslide risk
By André Coleman 02/11/2010
Wracked by weekend rains that triggered mudslides in which dozens of homes were buried in mud, rock and debris, residents of La Cañada Flintridge and other foothill communities braced this week for even more potentially devastating wet weather.
By press time Wednesday, 43 homes in La Cañada Flintridge had sustained serious damage, with nine homes being red-tagged, or deemed uninhabitable, by Los Angeles County officials.
Much once-plant-covered terrain that’s now slipping due to three inches of rainfall was scorched bare during the Station Fire in early September, which claimed the lives of two firefighters, burned 160,000 acres and caused more than $1 billion in damages in communities from Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley to Azusa.
There was no immediate figure available for the damage caused in this round of rain, but 25 vehicles were also damaged or destroyed and 500 other homes were evacuated as of Tuesday morning.
During a weekend visit to inspect the damage, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to investigate Mayor Laura Olhasso’s complaints about the US Forest Service, which has come under attack from LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and US Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who have sought investigations of the agency’s tactics in the Station Fire.
The Forest Service has declined to respond to these complaints, which center on claims that agency officials did not deploy firefighting aircraft sooner, despite several calls for help from firefighters on the ground. Spokespeople for the Forest Service have declined to comment about the controversy to this newspaper or to the Los Angeles Times, which broke the story.
Even though skies were blue and otherwise clear late Monday afternoon, dark clouds had moved into the area by Tuesday morning producing heavy rains. Skies were sunny but cloudy Wednesday morning, with area mountains sprinkled with snow.
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