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PARADISE – A series of storms, with up to 6 inches of rain, is heading toward Paradise, causing the threat of sudden floods and landslides in this fire-ravaged area less than two weeks after the most deadly and destructive fire in the history of California. Country gold city.
Heavy rains could also compromise the meticulous efforts to search for and identify human remains from the deadly fire, increasing the likelihood that relatives still missing will never be found.
The National Weather Service released a flood alert for the region from Wednesday to Friday, when storms are expected to provide the most precipitation since April 7, when 5.7 inches were recorded at Paradise, a Monday announced the forecaster of the National Meteorological Service, Johnnie Powell.
"It will help fight the fire, but it will hinder research and rescue," he said.
Everyone in the burned area must leave or be ready to leave, Powell said, and Butte County officials have warned residents who have returned to the fire zone or who live downstream to prepare their fire kits. 'evacuation.
Until now, almost all the victims of the fire have been found in homes and vehicles, but authorities worry about rivers of ash and debris caused by storms that hinder large-scale research efforts.
"Those who have the potential to disappear are those who may have struck a field or drainage ditch," said Monday Joe Moses, deputy sheriff of Monterey County and commander of the fire search operation. camp. "But it's a pretty low potential."
The remains of two other victims were found Monday, bringing to 79 the number of deaths in the historic fire. The number of missing persons continues to decline, with 669 missing persons, compared with 993 on Sunday. A total of 1,669 missing persons have been confirmed, according to the Butte County Sheriff's Office.
On November 8, in the town of Butte, 90 miles north of Sacramento, the campfire blazed by the wind left traces of destruction and desperation never seen in California.
As of Monday, the fire had burned more than 151,272 acres, destroyed nearly 12,000 homes and had only been controlled to 70%. According to Cal Fire, full containment is scheduled for November 30. While the rain should help slow down the fire, it will surely increase the misery index for crews working on the largest research of its kind ever done in California, said Moses.
"When the ashes become wet, they become really sticky and difficult to search," he said.
The good news is that removing some of the ashes could help dead dogs locate human remains more easily, said Cal Fire spokesperson Rick Crawford, who works in Paradise with teams of research.
In some cases, where the fire has burned particularly hot, there is little left to find except teeth or skull fragments. And some remains are too badly burned to extract DNA, said Stephen Meer of ANDE Rapid DNA, a Massachusetts-based company that has moved to Chico to test and identify the remains against the DNA relatives of the missing.
"There is a good point between ashes and bones," said Meer in a recent interview.
Disaster deliveries are often made in paper bags – instead of traditional plastic bags, which are too big for everything else.
Since the fire ravaged this city of 26,000, more than 500 volunteers from 38 counties in California have sifted shaved houses and molten vehicles. They are joined by a hundred specialized anthropologists and coroners, who can more easily tell the difference between human and animal bones.
The effort becomes more laborious. Victims uncovered near homes and vehicles were the first discoveries. Today, eleven days after the fire, teams are removing collapsed roofs, removing fallen debris and carefully filtering debris.
"It just takes a lot more work, so it slowed down," said Fresno battalion chief Brian Price, based in Paradise, Monday. "Previously, we could cover a lot of ground quickly, but now we are going a lot, a lot. It is much more complete.
Before the fire, city officials divided the city into 14 evacuation zones, which research teams now use to conduct a methodical clean-up. They wanted to first clear areas that could be repopulated more easily, said Price, to allow people to return, if only to observe the damage done to their homes.
Researchers look for clues at each location.
"There are many mobile homes where there are still vehicles in the driveway", Det. Gary Vrooman said: "Which leads me to believe that they did not do it."
They are also looking for signs indicating that someone may have tried to flee the flames: an open door on a cremated car, a creek near an abandoned vehicle.
Crawford, of Cal Fire, did not always understand what happened to people who abandoned their cars. His team came across a pair of cars that obviously collided. Where did the occupants who fled to save their lives go?
"We just take the area and literally rummage every inch," he said. "We're going back every building, every trash, we're opening every door, even if it's a warehouse, a Starbucks coffee shop, another house," he said. "Because even if the owner does not live there, it is possible that someone has sought refuge there."
Search teams are trying to get into the head of someone who is trying to escape, says Moses, the commander of the search operation.
"You look, look around and imagine a fire is coming," he said. "What would I do, where would I run? Oh, there is a pool or meadow or ravine."
It is these gullies that could become the scene of dangerous "debris flow" with storms, said forecaster James Matthews of the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
"If you are on a steep hill and heavy rains fall on a badly burned area, you can get all the loose wood or ash, everything can start to slide and can look like rivers of mud and other types debris, says Mathews. "This would pose a problem or danger to those involved in the safety of these fires."
The rains and temperatures down in the 30s will also be difficult for those who pitched tents in the grassy lot next to the Walmart parking lot in Chico. Several volunteers tried to encourage people to take shelter in the Red Cross evacuation centers, but many refused.
"It's not our call" to tell people to go somewhere else, said volunteer Mike Martini.
Instead, the volunteers bring tarpaulins to keep dry and wooden pallets to raise the tents of the sodden field that will soon be.
"My family is in homes," said volunteer Dave Foster. "We have friends everywhere, so we are blessed. Many of these people do not. They do not have tenant insurance. It will be chaos for a moment. "
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