The Santa Cruz Mountains in Monterey County, northern California, United States, suffered heavy rainfall on the 28th local time and caused mudslides.
The region experienced wildfires last year, which made the geological areas of the mountain areas particularly fragile.
In addition, the vegetation that should be able to fix the soil was completely burned down, resulting in serious debris flow damage.
According to the local fire department, the debris flow has destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands of residents to evacuate.
Since August last year, Monterey County has been hit by months of wildfires.
The fire destroyed more than 350 square kilometers (86,500 acres) of mountain forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Forest fires burn vegetation at high temperature, which in turn affects the soil structure on the surface of the area, resulting in drastic changes in soil layer density and voids.
The rain in the area for several days peaked in the early morning of the 28th, with rainfall exceeding 2.54 centimeters per hour (1 inch), causing debris flow disasters.
According to a spokesman for the local fire department, although the deployment was done before the rainy season, it still seemed to be overwhelming in the face of bad weather.
At present, the mudslide has destroyed about 15 local houses and injured two people.
At the same time, it was threatened by the mudslide.
The fire department has forced the vicinity to exceed 5,000 residents were evacuated.
California has been threatened by natural disasters such as wildfires and mudslides for many years.
After the frequent wildfires burn down the vegetation in autumn, local residents will continue to face the danger of mudslides caused by heavy rainfall in winter.
Among them, California’s most serious mega-delide disaster occurred in January 2018, in the Montecito region of the southern part of the state.
The mudslide killed 13 people, injured more than 160, and destroyed hundreds of homes.
And a month before the mudslide disaster, the area also experienced the worst wildfire in California history at that time, the Thomas Fire.
