Thunderstorms that swept across Southern California Sunday led to one death and caused flooding and mudslides that stranded more than 2,000 others. Locally, 26 people were rescued and 400 vehicles were stranded, due to flash flooding on Highway 62 east of Twentynine Palms Sunday afternoon. County Fire Captain Wayne Thompson said swift water rescuers were dispatched from Yucca Valley Fire Station 41 about 3:45 p.m.; it took about an hour to reach the flooded areas east of Highway 177.
Thompson said some of the stranded people had stopped their vehicles on high points in the road and were surrounded by flash flooding, while other vehicles were in the rushing water. Thompson said the swift water rescuers drove their 4-wheel-drive truck into the water and loaded stranded people into the truck and then drove them out. The 26 rescued people were in at least a dozen vehicles. Highway 62 is closed from Highway 177 to Vidal. Elsewhere in the county, a body was found in a car that was swept into a rain-swollen creek in Mount Baldy and overturned. Flash floods brought thick debris flows that cut off access to about 1,500 residents of Oak Glen, and another 1,000 residents of Forest Falls in the San Bernardino Mountains. The stranded include 500 children and adults who had arrived at a Forest Falls campground Sunday morning.
The flooding in this clip is on 95, just north of Highway 62. Video by Aubrey Diehl.
