Rain headed to fire-ravaged Southern California will bring threat of landslides

(LOS ANGELES) -- Much-anticipated rain could be headed to drought-stricken Southern California this weekend -- but rainfall also brings the threat of landslides in the wake of Los Angeles County's devastating fires.

Rain and mountain snow are expected in Southern California on Saturday and Sunday.

Rainfall rates are expected to be light, up to 1 inch over the course of the weekend.

But thunderstorms are possible; lightning could spark new fires and the thunderstorms would cause heavier rainfall.

Heavy rain over the vulnerable wildfire burn scars would be extremely dangerous because it could lead to landslides.

The extreme burn scars are the result of the Palisades and Eaton fires, which erupted on Jan. 7. The wildfires ripped across the LA communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, destroying neighborhoods, claiming more than two dozen lives and forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate.

"We've never seen a burn scar in an urban area of this scope and magnitude," LA City Council member Traci Park said Tuesday.

"I normally pray for rain. God knows, we generally need it," Park said during a news conference. "But right now, let me point out the obvious: The burn scar of the Palisades Fire not only sits feet from the ocean itself, but already on hillsides that are already prone to slide, and which have already absorbed a tremendous amount of water from firefighting, broken pipes and melted pools."

"Adding water to this mess and saturated, unstable hillsides is the last thing we need," she continued. "But we already know at some point, it's going to happen. And let me remind folks burn scars don't absorb water at a normal rate. They simply add to the risk of floods, landslides and debris flow."

LA Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order on Tuesday to shore up the burn areas ahead of the rain.

"This is to prevent additional damage to areas already ravished by fire, and also to protect our watershed, beaches and ocean from toxic runoff," Bass said during the news conference. "The action plan I have directed our city Public Works bureaus to implement includes the installation of barriers, debris removal and diverting runoff from our stormwater system and into our sewer system where it can be treated."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that he's deploying specialized debris flow teams to Southern California ahead of the rain.

Among the state resources will be more than 400 California Conservation Corps members who'll "be working on watershed protection at firestorm burn scar areas to place silt fencing, straw wattles, and compost socks to act as physical barriers to filter contaminants found in rainwater runoff," the governor's office said. "More Corpsmembers will be trained to augment capacity in the coming days."

More than 80 California National Guard service members are also headed to the scene "with 2 dozers, 1 excavator, 1 loader, 4 dump trucks and other engineering assets to haul 527,000 cubic yards of materials in local debris basins," the governor's office said.

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