By DOUGLAS W. MOTLEY
Senior Writer
What weather forecasters are calling a “historic winter storm” unleashed its fury on much of Southern California and the mountaintop communities. Rain, propelled by 70 to 80 mile-an-hour wind gusts uprooted trees and branches that slammed into homes, businesses and automobiles over the recent three-day Christmas holiday period.
Rockslide on Highway 18 near Arrowbear. (Contributed photos)
It left behind a trail of significant destruction of roadways from rockslides and mudflows, which buried dozens of cars and trucks and filled dozens of homes with mud and debris in nearby Wrightwood, where nearly 10 inches of rain, emanating from a so-called atmospheric river, flowing southward from Northern California. It collided with what has been called the Pineapple Express, working its way eastward from the tropics. This collision turned into a tornado, which wreaked havoc on most of Southern California, with huge downpours and thunder and lightning that ravaged the Southland, including the Los Angeles area.
A weather station on Altdorf Drive in Crestline racked up a total of 8.6 inches of rain on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, and the following day, Dec. 26, while Lake Arrowhead logged in approximately 5.54 inches during the same period of time, which led to the opening of the lake’s floodgate at the dam, forcing even more mud, water and debris into the already flooded Summit Valley and Las Flores Ranch, which led to the closure of Highway 138 at Old Mill Road near Crestline.
Adding to the disaster was the falling of a large boulder on Highway 18 near Mile Marker 44, west of Big Bear Lake, which caused two cars to crash around 5:45 p.m. on Friday. A spokesman for San Bernardino County Fire said five persons were hurt in the crash, including two children, who sustained minor injuries. Altogether, four persons with minor injuries were transported to a hospital by ambulance as a precaution but were expected to be OK. This incident, a reporter said, delayed traffic in both directions between Running Springs and Arrowbear for over two hours. Caltrans crews were able to push the boulder to the side of the road and reopen the highway to through traffic.
The fierce storm slowly calmed down over the weekend, with freezing cold temperatures and a sunny sky on Saturday and Sunday.
0 Comments