Heavy rains were due to create new problems for residents of Northern California late on Tuesday, raising the risk of mudslides in an area where people left homeless by the state's deadliest wildfire remain huddled in parking lot encampments.
State and federal officials warned people to be alert to the risk of sudden flows of debris down the scorched, denuded slopes of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the Camp Fire has killed at least 79 people since breaking out on Nov. 8.
"There are people still living in tents," Eric Kurth, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's Sacramento office, said in a telephone interview. "That's certainly not going to be pleasant with the rain, and we might get some wind gusting up to 40 to 45 miles per hour (64 to 72 kph)."