SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Residents of a Richmond neighborhood are being evacuated due to a mudslide threat, city officials have confirmed.
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Seaview Drive in Point Richmond, also referred to as The Point, is under evacuation Wednesday afternoon. A crack has opened up in the hillside above the road, threatening 15 homes, which have been evacuated. Crews on the scene are laying down tarps and sandbags to stop further soil saturation, but gusts of wind are making the job difficult.
Landslides are a prevalent issue in the Bay Area, especially during times of torrential rain. "We definitely have an issue with (mud) slides in the Bay Area," Dr. Laura Sullivan-Green, a professor and chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at San Jose State University told KCBS Radio. Told KCBS Radio. "There is a little bit we can do, but we can't resist everything mother nature throws at us. One of the things that we can do is observe where slides have happened and adapt and also maintain as much drainage opportunity as we can."
The storm on New Year's weekend did a number on Bay Area soil. "We're hitting a point where we have a lot of saturation in the soil and it may take a while for it to dry enough that we can see an appreciable amount of absorbing the precipitation," Sullivan-Green said.
Further complicating soil response to the storm, burn scars change the chemical composition of the earth, making the ground more susceptible for movement. "That chemical change lasts for a few years and it fades overtime. So we will see these burn scars remain a concern for a while," she explained.
Along with mudslides, the storm has also impacted power. As of 2:00 p.m., there were more than 11,000 PG&E power outages in the Bay Area. "We ask for your patience and know we are throwing everything we can at this event," a PG&E spokesperson told KCBS Radio.
Both southbound lanes of Highway 17 at Idyllwild were blocked due to a rock/mudslide at 1 p.m., but the road has been cleared. Drivers are asked to be careful when passing through the area as the road still has debris.
If the land gives away under the surface, that's a landslide. A debris flow is caused by a buildup of shallow soil from rushing water.
Storm evacuations have also taken place in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
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