- Several dozen homes in the town of Wrightwood were damaged by mud.
- The atmospheric river diminishes after three days of torrential rain.
- Flood watches remain in effect for much of the Los Angeles area.
Three days of heavy downpours that brought flash floods and mudslides across Southern California subsided Friday, as residents in homes in the hard-hit mountain resort of Wrightwood began digging through the mud and assessing the damage.
The holiday storm drenched the greater Los Angeles basin with up to 6 inches of rain Friday, with 12 inches or more measured in the low-lying mountains east of the city, according to the National Weather Service.
The deluge, which began around Christmas Eve, was caused by the region’s last atmospheric river storm, a vast air current of dense moisture siphoned from the Pacific and carried inland.
The torrential rains were accompanied by strong gusty winds that toppled trees and power lines across the region, causing power outages. Heavy snow fell in the high mountains.
Even before the storm hit, authorities had issued evacuation warnings to neighborhoods considered vulnerable to flash flooding and debris flows, particularly near hillsides previously ravaged by wildfires. Motorists have been urged to avoid traveling as much as possible.
Even as precipitation decreased Friday, a flood watch remained in effect across much of Southern California.
Houses submerged in mud
In Wrightwood, a town of about 5,000 that bore the brunt of the storm in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, county safety inspectors began initial assessments of property losses.
Several dozen homes were heavily damaged by rivers of mud that poured into the city Wednesday, and authorities were prepared for more debris flows that could occur, said Ryan Beckers, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
“Evacuation warnings for Wrightwood are still in effect and all roads in the area are closed except to residents,” he said.
Misty Cheng, 49, an accountant and vacation home owner in Wrightwood, said she learned the property was being engulfed by a mudslide from a neighbor who sent her video footage.
“My house is buried under more than five feet of mud,” Cheng said, speaking to Reuters by cellphone from her primary residence in nearby Upland, where she was staying when the slide occurred.
A trickle of mud had seeped into the house through a crushed wall of the attached garage, filling the living room. By the time she ventured back to the property herself to survey the damage and salvage some belongings, the mud had hardened into a mound strong enough for her to stand on.
“I was able to get a truckload of personal items out” of the house, mostly from the second floor, which was untouched, she said. Without flood insurance, Cheng said he created a GoFundMe page to raise money for repairs.
Aerial video footage posted online by firefighters showed clusters of homes and vehicles in the city covered in walls of mud as teams of front-end loaders began clearing clogged roads.
Beckers said emergency crews rescued about 20 people trapped by high water and debris flows in their vehicles or homes during the holidays, but no deaths or serious injuries were reported in Wrightwood.
The weather service said Southern California was expected to dry out over the weekend, while across the country a major winter storm threatens to begin dumping record levels of snow on parts of New York state starting Friday evening.
