 I'm Brian May in the Cal OES Newsroom. Yosemite is one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of California. So when all of Yosemite National Park had to be closed due to the Ferguson fire in July, there was real concern about the long-term effects the fire would have on Yosemite's famed beauty. Sean Boyd traveled to Yosemite to get the latest from park rangers there. Sean? Brian, the Ferguson fire began burning in early July of this year. It burned nearly 97,000 acres before it was fully contained on August 19th. Now at one point, smoke forced the closure of much of Yosemite National Park. Now it has since reopened, but park managers are working feverishly to lessen the impact of any future potential disasters. Charred evergreens litter the landscape just west of the Yosemite Valley floor. The Ferguson fire is not the first natural calamity to leave its mark on this national park. There have been fires and floods, like the big one in 1997. I would have been under water, it was above my head, and so that flood came through here. In fact, one might say the Yosemite, as we know it, was literally shaped by one very long disaster. The glaciers that came through took that V-shaped valley and turned it into a U-shaped valley. The Ferguson fire is out, but the work to recover from it and prepare for the upcoming wet season is well underway. But we are concerned this fall and winter for some of the mudslides and mudflows. We have a lot of the hillsides that are along the road that we have burned areas. Highway 140, the El Portel Road, follows the Merced Canyon along the river. But above it lies a landscape weakened by wildfire, primed for impact. So you have all of that burned scar that's uphill, several thousand feet uphill, that could potentially roll downhill, and it could cut off one of the major arteries to Yosemite Valley. Also cut off many of the four million annual park visitors, hundreds of park employees, and the business supply chain. It's a major economic consideration. It's a safety factor. Park ranger Jamie Richards says they've seen slides before and they'll likely happen again. But officials aren't just sitting with their fingers crossed. They've been busy with chainsaws and heavy equipment. We had to do a lot of cutting to remove and mitigate the hazard trees, remove boulders, dirt and debris, alleviate hazards that would immediately fall into the road. They also have what's called a bearer team, burn area emergency response. These scientists, engineers, biologists and other experts help park managers prioritize recovery and preventative measures. And despite all of this, the park continues to welcome guests from all around the world. But park ranger Scott Gettemann says visitors will have a great time, but to plan for the unexpected. Just coming through the park, driving carefully, and if you're out hiking or looking around, just be aware of your surroundings. Now, if you'd like to know more about all of this and hear more from our two park rangers, we have a podcast for you where they sit down and talk about so much more than just what you've seen here. To listen to that podcast, you can go to oesnews.com and click on the podcast section, and that's where you'll find it. You can also go to iTunes as well as Google Play and search for All Hazards, the All Hazards podcast. Reporting in Yosemite National Park, I'm Sean Boyd. oesnews.com. Brian, back to you. Sean, thank you. As you heard, there is still concern for mudslides in Yosemite along the burn-scarred areas. Here's why areas that burn in wildfires can face such severe flood risk when it rains soon afterwards. During a wildfire, the burning plants release gas, and that gas gets into the soil, causing the roots to weaken. The gas then cools and solidifies. It forms a wax-like layer back at the surface. Intense heat from the fire can make the soil repel water, a condition that leaves behind what's called hydrophobic soil. And that hydrophobic soil or wax layer prevents rainwater from getting down below the surface, so it begins to saturate and weaken the topsoil above the waxy layer. As more rain falls, chunks of now-soaked topsoil begin to break loose and they slide down the slope. Rocks, trees, and mud flow freely and can exceed 35 miles an hour, left behind a thick, water-resistant layer that can last for years. Again, we've got more with the Yosemite Park Rangers on our website oesnews.com. And for all of us at Cal OES, I'm Brian May. Thanks for watching. Visit our online newsroom at oesnews.com to learn more about this program and get the latest news and information from our team. Don't miss our next video on your Facebook timeline, like our page, and you'll get the latest posts as they happen. If you're an Instagram user, you can see the latest snapshots by following our Cal OES Instagram account. And Twitter users can get instant access to our tweets from across the state by following Cal OES.