Jan 4, 2008 8:08 pm US/Pacific
Mudslide Fears Force Evacuations In SoCal
SANTA ANA (AP) ―
Orange County officials ordered mandatory evacuations late Friday for about 1,000 homes in four mudslide-prone Southern California canyons scorched by wildfires last fall.
Residents in Williams, Harding, Modjeska and Silverado canyons were told to leave their homes by 7 p.m., said Capt. Mike Blawn of the Orange County Fire Authority. A mandatory evacuation for large animals was ordered earlier Friday.
Deputies drove through the canyons with bullhorns announcing the order as darkness fell along the narrow, winding roads in eastern Orange County. Blawn said officials could not force residents to leave, but those who do go will not be allowed back to their homes until the danger passes.
He urged the estimated 3,000 people affected by the order to get out before the heavy rains arrived. Forecasters predict an approaching storm will drop up to 4 inches of rain in the Orange County lowlands and up to 12 inches in some mountain locations overnight and into Saturday.
"We don't take these evacuation orders lightly. We do everything we can to make sure they're necessary," Blawn said. "The thing with debris flows, mudslides and flash floods is that you can't see them coming."
Blawn said studies of the burn areas around the canyons indicated it would be 2 to 5 years before enough vegetation grew back to keep the hillsides stable during a rainstorm.
"For you and me, not living there, it seems like a slam-dunk, it's time to go," he said of canyon holdouts. "But these people have been evacuated numerous times, they've been coming and going since October."
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