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Posted By Leland on 03/01/2014 1:59 AM

At my last NFIP certification class the instructor mentioned something about floods that are related to fires, he flashed something on the screen, maybe it was a new rule or guideline and he seemed to say something to the effect that nobody knows or ever heard of such a thing so let's go to the next slide.

I have attached a photo taken in Glendora Ca after the recent wildfires. Anybody guess what the government workers are doing in the photo? And how it might relate to flooding?

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I lived in SoCal for many years Leland. Wildfires burn hillsides and vast areas and all the vegetation is consumed as fuel for these fires. So now the hillside has no vegetation and therefore no longer porous. As such the water instead of being absorbed sheets off these hillsides and wala instant flash flooding.

Whilst not positive, looks like they are embedding bio degradable mesh (almost twine like characteristics) into the burned out hillside. Kind of the same concept of wire mesh in concrete strengthens the slab. They then do some type of hydroseeding to encourage vegetation growth to strengthen and aerate the top soil 

    

they are just cleaning the concrete drainage thing because of the potential for mudslides after the fire, like you said. And sure enough, I took that photo just a few weeks ago and now we are getting some heavy rain. There is a huge electronic billboard near downtown LA that was warning about flash flooding on friday evening. And just for those who aren't familiar, the rule of thumb is that a mudflow that has the consistency of a chocolate milkshake is covered under the flood policy but when a huge hunk of wet dirt breaks off a hillside that is not covered.

here is an amazing video of a landslide of the type that most adjuster's probably wouldn't cover under the flood policy, it looks like a bunch of saturated dirt breaking loose rather than a liquid type of flowing mess, maybe a closer inspection would reveal more of a liquid flow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEbYpts0Onw

and here's a news report on cliffs falling into the ocean. This is always happening in California:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw6sDulj7GA

this is more the kind of mudflow that would generally be covered under the flood policy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2hZklrigwk

In the certification class, they mentioned that there was a new provision that the wait period on flood policies may not apply after a wild fire on government land.

So Tom and Joe were sitting at a bar in the Caribbean and the following conversation took place:

Joe: "So, Tom, what did you do before you retired and came down here?"

Tom: "Well, I owned a factory that burned to the ground. When I got the insurance money, I moved down here. How about you?"

Joe: "I also owned a factory. It flooded and it was not worth rebuilding. I got my insurance money and moved down here as well. Remarkable it happened to both of us."

Tom: "How do you start a flood?"