State of Emergency Declared in Southern California 

More Post-fire Rehabilitation as Erosion Control Measures Needed to Stabilize Scorched Hillsides

Racing to beat winter rains, work crews scrambled to stabilize the scorched hillsides along Southern California highways to prevent ash and silt from filling storm drains, oozing onto roadways, and blocking key commuter routes.

The California Department of Transportation, working in conjunction with the U.S. Forestry Service, contracted the erosion control work on thousands of acres from Simi Valley to San Diego.

Rain for Rent, Riverside received a call from one of the companies chosen to stabilize and hydro-seed 400 of the 750,000 charred acres in Southern California.

This large-scale project required four DV-150 6-inch pumps and nineteen 21,000-gallon steel tanks to store water pumped from a nearby reservoir.  The water was then pumped to three mixing vessels that mixed in the soil stabilizer and seed.  The mixture was pumped to another open-top container, from which a helicopter would siphon approximately 2,000 gallons of the mixture to spray over the terrain, a few acres at a time.

Erosion control was completed on hundreds of acres of slopes and hillsides along Interstates 8 and 15, as well as the state routes that lead to towns such as Ramona and the historic gold-mining town of Julian. 

The U.S. Forestry Service and the contractor were ecstatic with Rain for Rent's service capability and equipment that helped mitigate the ensuing dangerous situation.