Powerful storms trigger mudslides in hills scarred by Colby fire last January

Consequences of the recent Colby fire in Southern California now become apparent, as storms along the entire length of California trigger dangerous mudslides and threaten many foothill communities.

The Colby fire last January destroyed the protective vegetation and the trees, on the San Gabriel mountains, which were holding the soil together. Now, heavy rains come as a blessing in disguise to the area, since they provide a relief to the long drought period, but also trigger mudslides, which threaten entire inhabited areas. The foothill communities of the San Gabriel mountains, were expected to accept as much as 8inches of rain, hence urging the authorities to issue mandatory mudslide evacuation orders, concerning more than 1,000 residents.

Mud flow occured along several roads and the National Weather Service reported that two feet of mud was measured across Yucca Ridge Road on Friday. Glendora City Manager Chris Jeffers said "experts planned to study the condition of slopes where rain had fallen at the rate of 1.3 inches an hour at times". He also expressed his hope to "get up closer to some of the hills for our engineers to see how the saturation may look, if there's any signs of stress on the hillsides, on any of the properties".