Both the mud flows and the winds are problematic because both the mud flows and the winds could close roads and cut off power. Power has been cut off already for many people in the area. So, they are encouraging people to leave who are below burn areas or who could lose power on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Also, if power goes many people will lose communication with police and Sheriffs offices so if people don't evacuate they likely will be on their own with no help available. Because a helicopter cannot even get to them in these winds or storms that are presently here or coming. What is coming starting Tuesday night is much worse than we have seen in the last couple of days or the entire previous rainy season (which mostly has been pathetic and only about 10% or 20% of normal so far).
Last night I went outside where I live on the coast because it sounded like a large Tree fell. I got a large safety flashlight out and walked around my property and finally found the cause. It was two of our outdoor chairs had blown off one level of the deck and onto a lower level both at once. I realized the winds were pretty bad so I moved all the deck chairs away from windows and glass sliding doors so they wouldn't break in the winds. This, so far was enough. When we sometimes get 100 mph winds off the ocean during winter storms I take the deck chairs completely off the deck and place them out in the yard where they can blow around without causing damage to glass in doors and windows and sliding glass doors but so far the wind is not at that level but might be in the next few days.
The Mud Flow situation is quite serious because we had a situation in Montecito in Santa Barbara after a bad fire where 25 people died in very expensive homes and even people like the actor Jeff Bridges had to be rescued by helicopter along with his wife because mud and rocks and large boulders that came down out of the mountains closed all the roads to where they live and destroyed many houses around them likely including theirs too I believe. This happened January 9th 2018 which scared the hell out of the whole state that some thing like this could happen in the state because of the combination of Fires and then heavy rains.
California is one of the few places in the U.S. that can get up to 16 inches of rain in a one or two day period and because of extreme altitude differences after fires this could kill many people if they aren't evacuated when this kind of thing happens.
If you can hear the mud slide coming it's already too late to survive it they say. So, even if you climbed up on your roof if the mud slide brings your home down it's already too late to survive it. So, only by evacuating before it happens might save your life.
This is all a part of the extreme climate changes in California caused by Global Warming that has increased fires and that also causes heavy rains to kill more people and to damage homes too. It's sort of a one two punch for Californians. If the fires and not being able to breathe right outside for months a year now isn't bad enough then the rains come and more homes and people's lives are destroyed.
But, it's sort of like earthquakes. If you love California because of it's location and weather and beaches and mountains and deserts and plains and farmlands then you "Weather the storms" and stay through almost anything.
By God's Grace
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