ASU professor: After fires, Southern California could face mudslides
Nov 15, 2018, 3:15 PM
PHOENIX – An Arizona State University professor said that once wildfires in Southern California are under control, the coastal region could face a different natural disaster: mudslides.
“Those houses that managed maybe to be saved are going to now have the problem of mudslides and landslides taking their houses down into the Pacific Ocean maybe later on this winter,” Dr. Randall Cerveny, professor of geographical sciences, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday.
Fires in Malibu and surrounding communities have destroyed more than 500 structures and caused at least three deaths. The fire was 57 percent contained, Cal Fire reported.
Those impacted included celebrities who lived in the exclusive area, including Miley Cyrus and boyfriend Liam Hemsworth, whose house burned down, actor Gerard Butler and singer Robin Thicke.
“When you have these kinds of fires in the fall, and then you get a wet winter, the vegetation is gone and so there is nothing to hold the soil together,” he said.
“You get rains on top of that, and you’re going to have some really, really nasty mud flows.”
Cerveny said storms could hit the Southern California coast – and continue into Arizona – at the end of next week, around Thanksgiving.
“Unfortunately, they could have mudslides starting as soon as Christmastime,” he said.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Thursday federal officials will work with state and local authorities to try to reduce the risk.
He spoke while touring the burn zone of the so called Woolsey Fire that prompted the evacuations of more than 200,000 people in and around Malibu.
Zinke appeared with California Gov. Jerry Brown, who said he was told by President Donald Trump that the state will get federal support to handle costs associated with the fire.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
