San Bernardino Fires: Approaching Disaster

Posted on December 5, 2003 in California Watch Old Fire

The worst may be coming for San Bernardino and other areas ravaged by the fires earlier this year. Rains are coming this weekend. When I was visiting my mother last week, local officials had already piled sandbags three high along the major north-south thoroughfares that began at the base of the foothills.

The problem in the making stems from a chemical reaction in the soil. When it is exposed to fire, it becomes waterproof. For the next several months, when rain hits the burnt over areas, less than 10% of it will soak in. The rest will bubble off the hillsides and into the cities.

If we get two or three days of heavy rain, you may be reading about houses sliding off the hillsides and homes spared by the fires being washed away.