(The Center Square) — This week’s second storm in California created less drama Thursday for the San Francisco Bay Area and is expected to have no impact on the areas burned by the recent Los Angeles County fires.
The Bay Area saw totals such as 0.18 inch in Oakland and 0.38 inch Thursday in downtown San Francisco, said Dial Hoang, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in nearby Monterey. On Tuesday, the Bay Area experienced as much as 16 inches of rain.
Winds reached 48 mph Thursday at the San Francisco International Airport, Hoang told The Center Square.
In Southern California, rain reached Santa Barbara County around noon Thursday and varied from 0.1 inch in the city of Santa Barbara to 3 inches in the county’s mountains and foothills, said Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, a Ventura County city that got less than 0.1 inch of rain during the afternoon. Winds in Oxnard were 15 to 25 mph.
Rain will remain light as it reaches Los Angeles County Thursday night and won’t be enough to create serious debris flows in scar areas from the Palisades and Eaton fires, Lewis told The Center Square.
Rain is expected to continue through Friday morning.
Meanwhile, debris removal and recovery efforts in the areas hit by the fires continue.
“The level of destruction and the scope of this damage is beyond anything that we’ve seen in Los Angeles County in terms of infrastructure,” Mark Pestrella, director of the Los Angeles County Public Works Department, said at a news conference Wednesday.
“Many of my colleagues around the nation agree this is one of the largest disasters seen in the United States,” Pestrella said.
More than 6,000 households affected by the fires have filed right-of-entry forms allowing Army Corps of Engineers crews to remove debris under a free program, Kathryn Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said at the news conference.
In Altadena, which was hit by the Eaton Fire, 40% of the impacted homes have submitted right-of-entry forms, Barger said, adding other affected residents should file them.
She announced the formation of the county’s Altadena Recovery Commission to guide the rebuilding of the unincorporated community outside Pasadena.
