The rains of the past few days have Santa Cruz Mountains residents looking over their shoulders and keeping their radios tuned in.
Winter rains mean mudslides, road closings, and threats to mountain homes.
Earlier this week, a slide forced a Felton couple from their house. A slide closed Highland Way three miles from Spanish Ranch on the way to Rattlesnake Gulch, and Monday, Empire Grade was blocked less than a mile from the UC Santa Cruz campus by a slide. Indeed, mudslides are a fact of life. The short answer is rainfall intensity. Eleven or more inches of late fall rain saturates the ground, priming it to wash away.