The Californian towns which have been ravaged by wildfires over the last two weeks will be soaked by rain on Tuesday and Wednesday which will slow down the search for the nearly 1,000 people who remain missing.
At least 79 people have been confirmed dead as a result of the devastating wildfires in Paradise and further south near Los Angeles and the death toll is expected to rise dramatically as teams continue to comb through the debris.
The official number of people who remain missing has fluctuated drastically in the last week and authorities are urging caution in reporting the numbers but as of Tuesday, the missing list kept by Butte County Sheriff's Office in Paradise had 993 names on it.
That does not include all those missing as a result of the Woolsey fire in Los Angeles County where officials are yet to reveal how many remain unaccounted for.
Among the biggest problems is the difficulty in identifying the torched remains, many of which are burned beyond recognition.
The Woolsey fire is now 96 percent contained and firefighters expect it to be completely extinguished by November 22.
The Camp fire is 60 percent contained. On Monday, experts said they predicted it will burn for another 10 days before being entirely put out.
Emergency services are still combing through the debris in Paradise, California, more than two weeks since it ravaged the city. More than 900 people remain missing across California and heavy rain forecast for Tuesday through to Wednesday night is not only going to hamper search efforts but will pose the fresh risk of mudslides and rockslides
'It is overwhelming, I don't have any word to describe it.
'This is unprecedented. No one has had to deal with this magnitude that caused so much destruction and regrettably so much death,' Butte County Sheriff Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said on Monday.
The rain forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday will bring relief to the areas with the worst air pollution and where the fires are still burning but they will pose other problems.
As much as four inches of rain is forecast in Chico, were Paradise evacuees are sheltering, and in the town itself between Wednesday and Sunday.
'Once you get the first real rain, the fire season comes to an end. The fire threat falls significantly.
'But it is a double-edged sword,' AccuWeather senior meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski told USA Today.
As of Monday, the Camp fire had torched more than 151,000 acres (61,100 hectares) of parched scrub and trees, incinerating about 12,000 homes along the way, Cal Fire said.
Efforts to further suppress the flames were likely to benefit from a storm expected to dump as much as 4 inches of rain north of San Francisco between late Tuesday and Friday, said Patrick Burke, a National Weather Service forecaster.
Colleen Fitzpatrick, founder of the California-based consulting company Identifinders International, said rain would turn the site into a 'muddy, mushy mess', slick with wet ash.
Pathologists from the University of Nevada, Reno worked through the weekend as firefighters peeled back debris, collecting bits of burned bones and photographing everything that might help identify victims.
The risk of mudslides could also increase the misery of the evacuees, some of whom are living in tents or camping out of their cars.
Residents who only recently were permitted back in homes that survived the fire may be ordered to evacuate again if they live downslope from badly burned areas.
Intense fire over the slopes of canyons, hills and mountains makes them more prone to landslides, by burning away vegetation and organic material that normally holds soil in place.
The fire also creates a hard, waxy surface that tends to repel rather than absorb water.
This precipitation map shows that as much as four inches could fall between Wednesday and Sunday in northern California in Paradise and Chico
The result can be heavy runoff of rainwater mixed with mud, boulders, trees and other debris that flows downhill with tremendous force, said Jason Kean, a research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey.
'Those debris flows have the consistency of wet concrete and move faster than you can run,' he said.
'It's like a flood on steroids ... and a big one can take out two-story buildings.'
The number of residents needing temporary shelter was unclear, but as many as 52,000 people were under evacuation orders at the height of the firestorm last week.
Nearly 500 miles south of Paradise near Malibu, west of Los Angeles, at least two inches of rain are expected to fall on a second fire, the Woolsey, which has killed three people.
That blaze was 94 percent contained by Monday morning.
The cause of both fires is under investigation, but electric utilities reported localized equipment problems around the time they broke out.
PG&E Corp has said it could face liability that exceeds its insurance coverage if its equipment were found to have caused the Camp Fire.
Thousands of people are living out of tents and in shelters across other areas of California as they wait for news of their loved ones.
Christina Taft is still looking for her mother, Victoria, who refused to evacuate her Paradise home.
'They said they found remains, they didn't say her remains. They won't confirm it to me the whole time,' she said of the police.
More than a dozen people are marked as 'unknowns,' without first or last names. In some cases, names are listed twice or more times under different spellings. Others are confirmed dead, and their names simply haven't been taken off yet.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/11/20/frustrations-mount-in-california-as-search-for-wildfires-victims-is-challenged-by-heavy-rain/
Main photo article The Californian towns which have been ravaged by wildfires over the last two weeks will be soaked by rain on Tuesday and Wednesday which will slow down the search for the nearly 1,000 people who remain missing.
At least 79 people have been confirmed dead as a result of the devastating wildfires ...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/11/20/14/6427738-6409239-image-a-47_1542722998079.jpg
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