An elevated section of Interstate 10 collapsed Sunday amid heavy rains in a remote desert area of California, leaving one driver injured, stranding many others and preventing travel for thousands by cutting off the main corridor in both directions between Southern California and Arizona.
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The rains came amid a second day of showers and thunderstorms in southern and central California that were setting rainfall records in what is usually a dry month.
The lighting is expected to continue, but less frequently than Saturday, until midday Monday, said Brett Albright, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s San Diego office.
In San Diego, 1.03 inches of rain fell on Saturday, breaking the July single-day record of 0.83 inches, set back in 1902, and the record for all of July, which was also set that year. “For July it’s historical”.
Tropical Storm Dolores brought a strong swell of warm and muggy weather from the south, spreading monsoonal moisture through Los Angeles and into the San Gabriel Valley and Orange County.
Muggy, moist conditions were expected to persist through today.
How weird was the weather? How rare? It was the first time a Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball game was rained out since 1995.
Farther east, Interstate 10 – a key route for truckers and travelers – was shut down late Sunday afternoon after a bridge washed out in Desert Center. It carries eastbound traffic about 15 feet above a normally dry wash.
One driver of a pickup truck that fell with the freeway had moderate injuries, officials said.
Kasinga says engineers won’t even be able to properly assess the damage to the two sides until Monday morning, and offered no timeframe for their opening again.
Floodwaters cut a large gully through the eastbound side, while the ground under the westbound lanes was completely undermined, the Riverside County Fire Department said. Firefighters were “trying to keep it from getting in the houses”, Fuhrman said, but there was an “immediate threat of mud, and there was water inside” at least one of the homes.
Up to half an inch of rain was possible in spots because of Tropical Depression Dolores, which is drifting north from Mexico, according to the National Weather Service.
In Orange County, a debris flow stranded several residents in Silverado Canyon on Sunday evening.
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In many parts of the country, a July afternoon thunderstorm is about as commonplace as a crowded neighborhood swimming pool or a long line of children at an ice cream truck.
