Some Residents In Burn Areas Dealing With Debris, Mud Flows
CAMARILLO SPRINGS (CBSLA.com) — A temporary evacuation alert was in place on Tuesday for several hours in Camarillo Springs, where a mudslide came down a year ago after a nearby hill was scorched by the Springs Fire.
Ten homes there have been red-tagged, which means they are no longer livable because of the extensive damage.
The fear was Tuesday's downpour would cause even more of the hillside to come down. That is why the city spent $2 million to build steel-mesh barriers to prevent more debris from flowing down during El Ninõ storms.
Val Palmer and her husband left their home during voluntary evacuation. "Because the city had just finished last week all the mitigation work on the hill, we had no idea how successful that would be," she said.
But last year's mudflow did spare some homes. One of them is owned by Ted Elliot's parents. Elliot dropped by Tuesday to check on his mother and father to make sure they and their home are OK.
"My mom and dad have the only surviving house here for the last ten houses coming down here. So I've been keeping an eye on them," Elliot said.
Near the Solimar Fire burn area, flooding and a mudslide forced the southbound Highway 101 at Seacliff to be closed for a period of time. At one point, the flooding looked like river rapids, which were captured by commuter Polo Ascencio on his phone camera.
In Orange County's Silverado Canyon, residents were on voluntary evacuation as they coped with a debris flow across the only road in and out of the area. CBS2/KCAL9's Michele Gile reports people there were under a flash flood watch, which was upgraded to a warning at one point.
