Flash floods damage more than 30 California homes

Flash floods damage more than 30 California homes

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and MAIL ONLINE REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 18:00 EST, 4 August 2014 | UPDATED: 21:48 EST, 4 August 2014

Flash-flooding in southern California claimed the life of at least one person on Sunday, as extreme rainfall wiped out dozens of homes and left thousands stranded by impassable roads.

On Monday, the skies cleared and crews got to work clearing the roads and surveying and the damage done to some 30 homes in the Mount Baldy and Forest Falls area.

Downpours punctuated with thunder and lightning dumped nearly 5 inches on Mount Baldy and as much as 3 1/2 inches on Forest Falls some 50 miles away, the National Weather Service said.
The sole victim of the afternoon's rain storm was identified as 48-year-old Joo Hwan Lee of El Segundo, who died after his white Toyota Prius was swept down a swollen creek and became wedged among boulders and a log.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...14_634x475.jpg
A car is lodged in the debris on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014 where a body that was swept into the rain-swollen water course was found Sunday in Mount Baldy, Calif. About 2,500 people were stranded early Monday after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...80_634x476.jpgA car is lodged in the debris on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014, where a body was found Sunday that was swept into the rain-swollen water course in Mount Baldy, Calif. About 2,500 people were stranded early Monday after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

Local resident Angela Batistelli was returning home with groceries when she found Lee parked in her driveway. Hikers heading up 10,068-foot Mount San Antonio, also known as Mount Baldy, frequently park there and she asked the driver to move along.
Rain was falling hard when she carried some bags up to her house perched on stilts. She saw the Prius down the street; its taillights were surrounded by water and then it was gone in the roar of water filling the canyon.
Batistelli's car, a Toyota Echo, also washed away. It was found sticking straight up, its front end buried in the silt-filled streambed. Her 250-gallon propane tank was torn from the house and skipped down the street.
Michael Honer also has a home overlooking Bear Creek and spoke of watching the stream flow for the first time in two years.

At first, it carried only leaves. By the time the rain stopped an hour later, the flow had carried away logs, rocks and even cars, sweeping a driver to his death.
'The stream was a raging black torrent of debris and big logs and muddy, silty water,' Honer said Monday as he shoveled mud outside a friend's house above the creek. 'It was apocalyptic.'

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...95_634x422.jpgJessica Gosney digs out her car after rocks and mud inundated her home in the mountain community of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Crews cleared roads in an area where some 2,500 had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California over the weekend, while authorities estimated that between 6 and 8 homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. One person was found dead in a vehicle that was caught in a flash flood. A group of campers spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls headed. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...66_634x401.jpgDebris and rocks are piled up outside a cabin in Bear Canyon in Mount Baldy, Calif., Monday, Aug. 4, 2014, after thunderstorms Sunday caused mountain mudslides in Southern California. Authorities estimated that between 6 and 8 homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...90_634x389.jpgA car lies where it was swept down a wash in the mountain community of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Crews cleared roads in an area where some 2,500 had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California over the weekend, while authorities estimated that between 6 and 8 homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. One person was found dead in a vehicle that was caught in a flash flood. A group of campers spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls headed. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...02_634x422.jpgA car lies where it was swept down a wash in the mountain community of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Crews cleared roads in an area where some 2,500 had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California over the weekend, while authorities estimated that between six and eight homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. One person was found dead in a vehicle that was caught in a flash flood. A group of campers spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...01_634x429.jpgOnlookers view rocks and mud and downed power lines from a mudslide in the mountain community of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Crews cleared roads in an area where some 2,500 had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California over the weekend, while authorities estimated that between six and eight homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. One person was found dead in a vehicle that was caught in a flash flood. A group of campers spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...41_634x422.jpgRocks and mud have brought down a utility pole in the mountain community of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Crews cleared roads in an area where some 2,500 had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California over the weekend, while authorities estimated that between six and eight homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. One person was found dead in a vehicle that was caught in a flash flood. A group of campers spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...68_634x422.jpgA bulldozer clears boulders and mud from a roan in the mountain community of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains, Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Crews cleared roads in an area where some 2,500 had been stranded after thunderstorms caused mountain mudslides in Southern California over the weekend, while authorities estimated that between 6 and 8 homes were badly damaged and likely uninhabitable. One person was found dead in a vehicle that was caught in a flash flood. A group of campers spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...11_634x459.jpgIn this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo, a jeep sits perched atop a boulders at Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, Calif. following a rock and mudslide. Crews on Monday have cleared several feet of mud, rocks and debris that had blocked San Bernardino County roads, stranding some 2,500 people in the rural communities of Oak Glen and Forest Falls. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, David Bauman) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...41_634x430.jpgIn this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo, a fire hydrant and drinking fountains are partially buried at Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, Calif. following a rock and mudslide. Crews on Monday have cleared several feet of mud, rocks and debris that had blocked San Bernardino County roads, stranding some 2,500 people in the rural communities of Oak Glen and Forest Falls. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, David Bauman) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...57_634x478.jpgIn this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo, Swift Water Rescue team members from San Bernardino County Fire Department suit up as they wait for a portion of the road to be cleared, following rock and mudslides in the Forest Falls, Calif. area. Crews on Monday have cleared several feet of mud, rocks and debris that had blocked San Bernardino County roads, stranding some 2,500 people in the rural communities of Oak Glen and Forest Falls. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, David Bauman) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...85_634x411.jpgIn this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo, emergency workers clear one of several rock and mudslides blocking Valley of the Falls Drive following a downpour in Forest Falls, Calif. Crews on Monday have cleared several feet of mud, rocks and debris that had blocked San Bernardino County roads, stranding some 2,500 people in the rural communities of Oak Glen and Forest Falls. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, David Bauman) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...26_634x430.jpgIn this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo, a family arrives at Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, Calif., following a rock and mudslide that severely damaged the property. Crews on Monday have cleared several feet of mud, rocks and debris that had blocked San Bernardino County roads, stranding some 2,500 people in the rural communities of Oak Glen and Forest Falls. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, David Bauman) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...97_634x444.jpgIn this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo, a golf cart and passenger vehicle are partially buried at Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, Calif. following a rock and mudslide. Crews on Monday have cleared several feet of mud, rocks and debris that had blocked San Bernardino County roads, stranding some 2,500 people in the rural communities of Oak Glen and Forest Falls. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, David Bauman) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/...71_634x422.jpgIn this Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014 photo, videographer John Casper walks near a large tent at Forest Home Christian Conference Center in Forest Falls, Calif., that was partially destroyed following a rock and mudslide. Crews on Monday have cleared several feet of mud, rocks and debris that had blocked San Bernardino County roads, stranding some 2,500 people in the rural communities of Oak Glen and Forest Falls. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, David Bauman) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Those who witnessed the flash flooding up close described a roar as waters surged down the mountains.
George Smith of San Diego had been hiking up Mount San Gorgonio with a friend when they came to a wash that had been dry earlier in the day.
'We were just kind of deciding should we make a go of it, to cross or not, when there was a 10-foot high wall of water and debris and logs coming toward us,' he said.'It sounded like thunder coming down the river. Me and my friend had to scramble up a cliff to get out of the way of it.'
He and 12 other hikers huddled together and called 911. When the operator asked for a cross street they had to explain that they were in the forest. A woman who lives near Forest Falls lit a fire in her fireplace and let them dry out.
Nearly 2,500 people, including a group of about 500 campers who spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls, were stranded in the woodsy communities until roads reopened Monday.
San Bernardino County resources were stretched thin by the storm. Scores of swift-water rescue teams and fire engines had been dispatched to far-flung areas, county Fire Capt. Josh Wilkins said. In the Angeles National Forest, a group of four or five people and a dog were airlifted to safety.
In Mount Baldy, home to a small ski area, dozens of mud-covered volunteers pitched in to dig out homes and cars inundated with dirt and rock. The most significant damage was on Goat Hill Road, where a landslide buried some homes up to their roofs.
Gloria Flickinger found a river of rock had flowed into her backyard, burying her rear entrance nearly two feet in muck. Her garage basement with laundry and school supplies for her special education class was flooded in ankle-deep water.
'I almost had a heart attack when I came home,' she said.
Some of her neighbors fared much worse. Rocks had pushed in walls of some homes and knocked over storage sheds. Several cars were buried in stone.
The gorge that had been 5 to 15 feet deep in places was filled to the banks Monday with rocks and silt that was level with the road. Only a trickle of water remained.
Monsoonal moisture brought brief but fierce storms to mountain, desert and inland areas. In and around Palm Springs, knee-deep water flooded streets and stranded vehicles.
Several areas in the West remained under flash flood watches Monday. In Nevada, flooding closed roads on the edge of Las Vegas and at Death Valley National Park.
Parts of New Mexico were under a flash flood watch after a week of rains and damaging floods.
A midnight flash flood pinned a family of 13 from Las Vegas against a Utah canyon wall near Zion National Park on Saturday morning as rushing water pulled their tents, minivan and two other vehicles downstream. Emergency workers used rope to pull them to safety across the river.
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