MOUNT BALDY, Calif. -- More than 30 homes have been damaged after flash floods struck Southern California mountain areas -- with at least a dozen of them so severely damaged that they're uninhabitable, authorities said Monday.
A flash flood ripped through the town of Mount Baldy and damaged 25 houses, rendering six of them uninhabitable, fire Chief Bill Stead said.
Mountain roads were reopened after mudslides shut them down and stranded some 2,500 people, including 500 campers who spent the night at a community center near Forest Falls but had departed, San Bernardino County fire officials said.
Up to eight homes near Forest Falls were "likely lost," and several others sustained minor damage from mud and water, Fire Capt. Jeff Britton said. At least 1,000 residents were unable to leave the area overnight.
Everyone in the two towns was accounted for and no injuries were reported, officials said.
To the west, a 48-year-old man died in a car that was swept into a rain-swollen creek near Mount Baldy. Coroner's officials identified him on Monday as Joo Hwan Lee of El Segundo.
Residents of Mount Baldy awoke Monday to sunny skies and mud-filled streets. They swapped stories between drying out carpets and shoveling dirt from in front of their homes.
"The stream was a raging black torrent of debris and big logs and muddy, silty water," said Michael Honer, who watched the flood build over an hour from a friend's house up the road. "It was apocalyptic. ... It sounded like a cross between a railroad train and a jet engine."
The white Toyota Prius in which the driver died was wedged in Bear Creek among boulders and a log. The windshield was shattered, and the car was full of dirt.
The driver had been parked Sunday in Angela Batistelli's driveway when she returned home with groceries. Hikers frequently park there, and she asked the driver to move.
Rain was falling hard when she carried some bags up to her house. 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 carried down the street.
The road leads the way to a hiking trail up Mount San Antonio, known as Mount Baldy. At 10,068 feet, the barren peak is one of the tallest in Southern California and is popular among hikers and skiers.
The creek, which hadn't run in the summer for two years, turned to a gusher of rocks and logs, jumping its banks and surging across the adjacent road. The gorge that had been 5-to-15-feet deep in places was filled to the banks Monday with rocks and silt, making it level with the road. Only a trickle of water remained.
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, in addition to a dog, were airlifted to safety.
Monsoonal moisture brought brief but fierce storms to mountain, desert and inland areas. In and around Palm Springs, knee-deep water flooded city streets and stranded vehicles.
The downpour dumped as much as 31/2 inches of rain on Forest Falls, and nearly 5 inches on Mount Baldy, the National Weather Service said.
Authorities said crews were assessing the extent of the damage.
Harsh flash flooding hit the same area 15 years ago, when landslides sent boulders and trees plowing through 15 homes and creek-side cabins in Forest Falls in the summer of 1999. One person was killed, and five others injured.
Parts of New Mexico were under a flash flood watch after a week of heavy rains and damaging floods. The latest flood watch covers more than 36,000 square miles from Albuquerque west to Gallup and north to Los Alamos and Taos.
Information for this article was contributed by Christopher Weber, Susan Montoya Bryan and Annie Knox of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/05/2014