Investigation of Sierra flood to be released Friday

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On Friday, July 17, geologists will present the results of their investigation into last year’s massive flow of boulders and mud in the Eastern Sierra that destroyed 25 homes and wiped out the historic Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery along U.S. 395.

Triggered by intense rain, the debris flow last July 12 along the south fork of Oak Creek slashed through an area blackened by an earlier fire just north of Independence, the seat of sparsely populated Inyo County, about 170 miles north of Los Angeles.

It took weeks of work by Caltrans, the U.S. Forest Service, the state Department of Fish and Game and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to restore roads, irrigation ditches and structures inundated by mud.

The presentation on Friday will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Owens Valley School Multi-purpose Room, 202 Clay St. in Independence.

On Saturday morning, those who attended Friday’s lecture can join geologists David Wagner, Jon Stroh and Margie DeRose on a field trip into the Oak Creek drainage. For more information, contact the Eastern California Museum in Independence at (760) 878-0258, or David Wagner at (760) 878-0074.

-- Louis Sahagun