one C of car were strand when a mudslide swamped a Southern California freeway last Nox in what feel like achilling dress dry run for the El Niñoon the direction . The mudslide is a reminder that it ’s not just profound rain we call for to worry about — profound pelting falling on the state ’s parched ground will bring disaster .
Yesterday good afternoon a sinewy storm cast off up to six inch of rain on the neighborhood causing dangerous flash flooding . In two separate incidents , ahillside slid onto the fussy 5 Freewayover a mountainous pass forebode the Grapevine andhundreds of cars were trappedon a smaller highway in the High Desert .
Ground that ’s exceptionally dry becomes gruff and hard , preventing water from of course infiltrating the grunge . When rainfall does come along , the soil ca n’t absorb water system as well , so the rainfall flush it out rather . The earth is therefore much more potential to become precarious .
So in both cases yesterday , it was n’t just water that made life difficult for drivers and house physician , it was the priming come with it in the form of thick sludgy mud . AsKCAL 9 report , in some instances car were absorb in up to six foot of clay .
Remember those NASA drought maps thatspecifically track soil moisture ? The surface area of the West with the driest soil are pretty much the same areas which are predicted to see profound than normal rain due to El Niño .
Cars stuck in mud on Highway 58 in#Tehachapi#mudslide#floodingpic.twitter.com / M0zlHGmArh
— Julie Sone ( @ABC7JulieSone)October 16 , 2015
We take care what chance when drouth - bake ground and fleshy rainwater encounter to dramatic effect in July , when rare summertime stormswashed out a freeway bridgejust eastern United States of Palm Springs .
flak — and it ’s been arecord - setting year for blazes in the West — make this situation even worse , as there ’s dry soil , less living vegetation to cast anchor the soil in place , plus debris from dead or burned trees which can make flow rate even more dangerous .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/655092687725400064
We ’ll see El Niño sculpting new landscape throughout California , and urban areas are particularly ill equipped to wangle big quantity of water . So if in fact El Niño might send enough pelting to “ end the drouth , ” the the true is , most of it will get flushed out to ocean through our storm drain . Los Angeles has just set up a weewee reformation system where the LA River hit the Pacific that will hopefully be able to overhear , clean , and put lot of that overspill to work . But it wo n’t be able to reprocess a wall of mud .
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