Supervisors OK Task Force on Preventing Mudslides
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to form a task force that will seek ways to prevent the mudslides that often follow fire season in mountain and canyon areas.
The Post-Fire Watershed Recovery Task Force--which will consist of members from federal, state and local agencies--was charged with helping control heavy erosion on the charred hillsides of the Santa Monica Mountains.
The vote came five weeks after the wind-whipped Calabasas-Malibu wildfire burned more than 13,000 acres in the canyon areas from the San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean. Afterward, a storm dropped as much as 6.5 inches on the area, causing erosion on the denuded hillsides.
The storm also loosened boulders that in future rains could tumble onto Malibu Canyon Road, one of the few north-south links in the area. A similar pattern occurred in 1993 after a deadly wildfire swept across the Santa Monica Mountains, only to be followed by heavy rains that caused destructive slides.
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