WASHINGTON — As wildfire season winds down, state crews say they are switching from fire danger concerns to flooding concerns.
This comes from burn scars creating perfect conditions for flooding and landslides.
The Little Giant, Spokane Complex, and SiSi fires burned almost 200,000 acres across Washington this summer, triggering massive responses by state land officials.
Nancy Calhoun with the Department of Natural Resources and the Washington Geological Survey says the fire danger is almost over, but the flooding concerns are just beginning.
“We are interested in wherever people and infrastructure are located downstream of steep slopes that burned,” Calhoun said. ”Steep and intensely burned areas are where we’re most concerned for increased flooding and debris flow hazards. There’s a background debris flow hazard in certain parts of Washington already, but intense fire makes it a lot worse.”
She said parts of last December’s historic flooding were so intense because of older burn scars in those areas.
“We were seeing debris flows in last year’s December floods. We were seeing debris flow off of burn scars from the year 2021. So that’s five years later,” Calhoun said.
Unfortunately, they can’t prevent the slides and flooding, but they can warn people in high-risk areas to be prepared.
“These are still relatively rare events, so knowing where your house is and where your commute passes by hazardous areas is really helpful,” Calhoun said.
She tells us that even smaller rain events could become a problem, so your emergency go bag should be ready.
“A lot more water will run off the slopes, even from the same rainstorm that could have been just an everyday rainstorm in the past, now turns into something that could go from nuisance flooding to really scary flooding and debris flows,” Calhoun said.
Current predictions show those who live in the Entiat Valley or in the Spokane Hills could see those flooding impacts this year.
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