BAER report warns of increased risk to travelers

From the Salinas Californian:

Tourists should think twice before going off the grid in Big Sur after the Dolan Fire consumed more than 124,000 acres on California’s scenic Central Coast.

A new report shows the damage done by the blaze poses a very high risk to human life.

The Dolan Fire Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) report found that Big Sur roads, trails and campgrounds are perched beneath dangerously unstable terrain.

The loamy, shallow dirt on the side of the steep-sided, sharp-crested ridges characteristic of the Santa Lucia Mountain Range will likely result in debris flows, flooding or rock falls, the report concluded.

Roads, trails, recreation areas and campgrounds “are in flood-prone areas, at the base of steep, unstable slopes or in the steep, unstable headwaters that are also at risk of post-fire debris flows, rockfall, increased runoff and hazard trees.

“Use of these areas would put life and safety at risk,” the report reads.

For more of this article see: https://www.thecalifornian.com/story/news/2020/10/21/dolan-fire-report-shows-high-risk-human-life-coming-years/3721657001/

For BAER report, see: The full report can be viewed online on Monterey County’s Office of Emergency Services website.