Emergency crews shoveled head-high mounds of mud from parts of two important highways in the mountains and desert north of Los Angeles on Friday after thunderstorms unleashed flash flood and debris flows, stranded hundreds of vehicles and forced a few motorists to take refuge on top of their cars.
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Heavy rains on Thursday sent tons of mud streaming onto Interstate 5 along the Grapevine mountain pass about 50 miles north of Los Angeles, shutting down the region’s main north-south highway, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) officials said. Melissa Nuesca, her son, James, and the rest of the family had to run for cover as mud filled their auto.
Crews are expected to take weeks to clean up in the hardest hit areas around northern Los Angeles County. Rescuers said most calls for help have come from trapped drivers.
A segment of Southern California found itself waist deep in mud as the weekend arrived, as well as a highway overtaken looked just like a buried junkyard of numerous automobiles that will probably take days to dig up.
Heavy rains has caused flooding and mudslides in foothill communities north of Los Angeles, swamping cars, stranding drivers and prompting authorities to close several major roads.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the flooding that began just before the afternoon commute.
Others were able to get to safety after waiting out the worst of the flash flooding on top of their vehicles.
The county section was planning to must transfer about 300,000 cubic yards of debris and mud, the sheriff’s statement said.
She said the two homes on the land seemed like they were OK, but that one of the homes was without water because of an inundated pump, and their 20-foot trailer is nowhere in sight. “I think they’re all dead”, said Wells, who was near tears.
Highway crews worked to plow away mud and debris from the freeway, and free trapped cars.
But the vehicles, including a school bus, were able to start moving again and weren’t expected to need rescuing, Santa Barbara County fire spokesman Dave Zaniboni said.
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Rainfall records for October. 15 were set Thursday in Palmdale (0.94 of an inch) and Sandberg (0.65 of an inch), breaking the previous records of 0.04 of an inch and 0.15 of an inch, both set in 1935, according to the National Weather Service. Historically, he said, an El Nino brought on with a warming of Pacific Ocean waters does not generally bring significant rain to Southern California.
