Heavier Rains Headed This Way

Deputies are patrolling the high-risk flood areas in La Cañada and urging residents to stack sand bags and relocate cars, but the La Cañada foothills so far are holding together, authorities said.

Sgt. Tania Plunkett of the said the area is under a cautionary level of yellow at the moment, and it wouldn't be until that is upgraded to orange that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department will knock on doors or notifiy residents through the Alert LA system with a pre-recorded phone call, an e-mail, text message or TTY message.

So far, there's been no significant debris flow, but the rain is expected to get worse.

The predicts more heavy rain late Monday afternoon into Tuesday morning, and then Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Possible thunderstorms on Tuesday night could cause rain to fall at over 1 inch per hour, according to the NWS.

As of 2 a.m. Sunday, driving rains prompted authorities to close Big Tujunga Canyon Road, Angles Forest Highway and Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road.

With a flash flood watch still in effect for the foothills, Battalion Chief Mitch Brookhyser of said so far so good, but they're anticipating debris flows from the charred hillsides. However, if residents have taken all the recommended precautions–set up K rails to divert water flow, stack sandbags and relocate their cars out of the water stream–then they have a better chance of avoiding disaster.

And although "you can't control Mother Nature,'' you can plan, Brookhyser said, noting the adage a failure to plan is a plan to fail.

"Most people have taken the time to prepare for the worst. You can't necessarily stop what's coming, but yo can get prepared before the storm hits,'' he said.

Brookhyser said residents may pick up sand bags from any county fire station, although Station 82 in La Cañada is out. However, there are sand bags available at fire camp 2 near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. http://www.fire.lacounty.gov/AirWildland/FireCampsWhoWeAre.asp