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.
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.
The rain forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday will bring relief to the areas with the worst air pollution but the winds which accompany them is likely to pose problems.
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
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 (10 cm) of rain north of San Francisco between late Tuesday and Friday, said Patrick Burke, a National Weather Service forecaster.
But heavy showers risk setting off mudslides in newly burned areas while also making it more difficult for forensic teams sifting through cinders and debris for additional human remains.
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.
This precipitation map shows that as much as four inches could fall between Wednesday and Sunday in northern California in Paradise and Chico
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.
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.