Rain alert after fires

STORMS brought rain to California yesterday and increased the risk of mudslides in fire-ravaged communities.

Property owners stacked sandbags in devastated northern areas and authorities ordered evacuations for southern neighbourhoods below hillsides burnt by the state’s largest wildfire in history.

Forecasters issued a flash flood watch for parts of Sonoma and Mendocino counties, north of San Francisco, warning that heavy rainfall could trigger mudslides in areas devastated by the wildfires in October.