Happy New Year 2023
2 Likes
Highway 168(4lanes) is shutdown between tollhouse and Lodge due to a rock slide.
3 Likes
SoCal Rainfall totals
2 Likes
California flooding: L.A. dams at risk of overflowing - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
"Now that the shock of a series of January storms has worn off, Los Angeles County officials face a herculean chore: Five reservoirs along south-facing San Gabriel Mountain slopes are filled with so much debris and soupy mud that they pose a flood risk to the communities below.
Another intense storm, they say, could unleash new surges of dirt, toppled trees and boulders down canyons stripped of their binding vegetation by the 2020 Bobcat fire, sending chocolate-colored floodwaters over the dams and into the cities of Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Pacoima, Sun Valley and Sunland.
An urgent concern is emptying the reservoir behind 96-year-old Santa Anita Dam of about 600,000 cubic yards of muck more than 80 feet deep. Two of the three valves that control releases of stormwater from the 20-story-tall dam are blocked with silt."
3 Likes
HEQ Represent
Excavating bottom of dam’s debris field (with a Menzi Muck “walking/spider” Excavator)
(4) Excavating bottom of dam’s debris field - YouTube
An interesting thing about these excavators is that they can be disassembled into components, lifted by long-line, and reassembled at sites without road access.
1 Like
Can’t do it when the dam is already full.
1 Like
600k yards, 80 ft deep. The objective is to clear two valves. The valves are in a group about half to two thirds down the deepest part of the ravine v-shape. Its twisty on both sides, the water has cut a winding fall, eh? Where do you put the muck to drill straight down to the valve cluster and let gravity do the heavy lifting, as it were, to drain? How much volume of tacky dirt will remain after the liquid water empties. Compacted down to something manageable with HEQ? I saw a Eurocopter (Tiny Bubbles Aviation) touring the dam sites. It’s everybody’s problem. ANF, CalFire, LA County, Parks, Water and Power, the list of stakeholders is very long and keenly interested.
It will be a big job. I hope to see some video.
3 Likes
2020 River Fire Post Wildfire Debris Flow Hazard Assessment
No doubt the 2020 River Fire scar contributed to the major and unrelenting flooding of the Salinas River.
2 Likes
Reports released about fatality on the 2020 El Dorado Fire - Wildfire Today
“We continue to ask our wildland fire responders to save communities that are becoming increasingly unsavable. At what point do we declare communities without any semblance of defensible space not worth the risk of trying to save under extreme fire behavior conditions?”
Speaking of ‘blindfolds and cigarettes country’, two areas of focus for prep: North San Diego County-Oceanside-Pendleton and the Madera foothills. These are firesheds that are primed for large fires this year, with additional risk arising from warmer temperatures and renewed fuels.
Chance favors the prepared mind.
2 Likes
