Rain is expected to drench fire-battered Northern California this week— much-needed good news that comes with some bad: the risk of flash flooding and mudslides, forecasters say.
Rain is expected to start Wednesday and continue through Saturday, the National Weather Service reported.
But the rain may be significant enough to cause mudslides and rock slides in the burn areas of northern California, KSBY reported. The extended forecast is calling for more rain at the start of December.
The soaking will end "fire concerns for the winter," Robert Baruffaldi, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service's Sacramento office, told CNN. But it’s also feared to make conditions treacherous for firefighters battling the Camp Fire, which has charred more than 151,000 acres and was only 70 percent contained as of Tuesday.
The inferno has already killed 79 people and destroyed 12,900 homes. Hundreds of residents are still unaccounted for, per CNN.
"What we're looking at here is potentially remains, or cremains -- it's kind of a cremated remains state," said Brian Ferreira, rescue squad officer for California Task Force 4 told CNN.
When the rain comes, "It's going to consolidate the material and make it more dense. And it's going to present much more like soil. So anything we find or hope to find that's still there, it's going to make a difficult task ... that much more difficult."
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