WALDO CANYON FIRE: A third of burn scar is 'severe', will take years to recover

Soil expert Brad Rust dug a hole in the blackened dirt on a hillside scorched by the Waldo Canyon fire and poured water into it Tuesday morning. The water pooled. That’s not a good thing. “It beads up and will not penetrate the soil,” said Rust, who works for the U.S. Forest Service. The charred soil poses a threat to thousands of people who live downslope, because it — and ash and debris — can wash downhill in a rainstorm.  The water-repelling layer is known as hydrophobic soil, and it’s the biggest cause for concern following the Waldo Canyon fire, which started June 23 near a popular hiking trail west of Colorado Springs and has been 98 percent contained for several days. “We know there’s going to be severe flooding potential, flooding coming off the burn area. The landscape has changed,” said Dana Butler, co-leader of the Burned Area Emergency Response team, a group of experts that has converged on the region to devise ways to minimize post-fire hazards. The group’s analysis of the burn scar will be released July 16, followed by a request for money for mitigation work. But post-fire problems have already begun. As officials led a tour of the burn area Tuesday morning, road crews were removing debris from a mudslide that forced the closure of U.S. Highway 24 in Ute Pass on Monday night, brought on by heavy rain on the burn scar. A slide also tore through the Crystal Mountain area in Cascade, where some residents piled sandbags to keep the stream of ash and mud from their homes...more