About 2,500 stranded after California storms
MOUNT BALDY, Calif. — About 2,500 people were stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California, while one person was found dead in a flooded creek, authorities said.
A body was found Sunday in a car that was swept into the rain-swollen water course in Mount Baldy and overturned.
Further east, flash floods Sunday brought thick debris flows that cut off access to two towns. About 1,500 residents of Oak Glen, and another 1,000 residents of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains were unable to get out because the roads were covered with mud, rock and debris, authorities said.
The stranded include 500 children and adults who had arrived at a Forest Falls campground Sunday morning.
“Our concern is that they’re isolated at that campground and no longer have access out of the mountain,” Kyle Hauducoeur, a county fire spokesman, said.
Authorities made reverse 911 calls to urge residents to stay put while crews clear the roads with bulldozers. The muck was so thick it submerged a van in Forest Falls, while on Mount Baldy water swept a hot tub into the road. It wasn’t immediately clear early Sunday how much progress had been made clearing roads.
Flash floods led to the rescue of several people. Hauducoeur said a woman in Mt. Baldy was rescued from her house before it was buried in mud. Four additional homes in the Bear Creek area were damaged by the debris flow.
In the Angeles National Forest, 4 or 5 people and a dog were airlifted to safety.
A U.S. Forest Service spokesman said some campers had seconds to evacuate before a torrent of water washed their tents and belongings.
Monsoonal moisture brought brief but fierce storms to mountain, desert and inland areas. In and around Palm Springs, knee-deep water flooded city streets and stranded vehicles.
The downpour dumped as much as 3½ inches of rain on Forest Falls, and nearly 5 inches of rain on Mount Baldy, the National Weather Service said.
