According to, there is no way to stop or change the path of a debris flow however, property owners may be able to protect their property from floodwaters or mudslides through the use of sandbags, retaining walls, or what are known as k-rails or Jersey barriers. There are some ways people can work to protect their properties from mudslides, however. “Due to the unpredictability of thunderstorms and economics involved, it is not practical to protect properties against every event. A typical design criteria is for the 100-year event, however if a 500-year event occurs those protections may not be adequate.' “Unfortunately, there is no way to predict where and when storm cells will drop rain nor its intensity,” Cooley said.

While residents and business owners may be asking how they can protect against these events, Cooley says it is difficult to protect against unpredictable storms. “Voltaire Street, South Carson Street, and the theater parking lot are examples of where these flows began to lose energy and deposited a majority of the debris from the hills above,” Cooley said.' As the rain water erodes the hillsides and canyons, it collects at the bottom and creates not only a powerful water flow, but a debris flow as well, which accelerates more erosion and intensifies that force of the flow, until it eventually spreads out over a flat area such as a road, parking lot, field, or becomes impounded in a basin or flows into the river. However when these cells drop intense rain in the foothills we will see what occurred (like) on Saturday.”Īs rain is dropped on the hillsides, it collects into the canyons that brings loose soil and rocks along with it, Cooley said.

“If it occurs in the bottom of the valley, we will experience drainages being overwhelmed which will cause localized street flooding and some flows onto properties and sometimes into businesses or residences. “The issue is where a cell drops an intense amount of water,” Cooley said. According to Deputy Public Works Director Rick Cooley, the mudslide that occurred in the area of the Fandango, as well as a slide that occurred at the same time on Goni Road, are typical of thunderstorms with heavy rains in the foothill areas of town.

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