(latimes.com)The storm that slammed into the high desert and mountains of Southern California this week was one for the record books.
Intense
rain sent massive mudflows onto highways, picking up cars and pushing
them into one another. Hundreds of vehicles were trapped in mud up to 20
feet deep; in some cases, motorists were stranded overnight.
In
one spot in the Antelope Valley, the storm dumped 1.81 inches of rain in
30 minutes on Thursday, in what the National Weather Service described
as a 1,000-year rain event.
"It's absolutely incredible," said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
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October
storms are nothing new in the high desert. But experts say the
intensity of the deluge is just the latest byproduct of the record
temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.
Thursday's storm was the
result of a cutoff low, a slow-moving low-pressure system that gets
pinched off from the jet stream and starts its own unpredictable
trajectory, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at Stanford
University.
The warm ocean temperatures — about 75 degrees on
Thursday, at least 5 degrees above normal — produced more water
evaporation and higher humidity levels. The storm system combined with
the high humidity to create enough instability in the atmosphere to
trigger the intense thunderstorms and torrential rainfall, Swain said.
The
storm was part of the same system that hit Southern California more
than a week ago, Swain said. It originally came in from the north, then
moved east over the desert Southwest. From there, it "made the strange
track of coming to Southern California from the east," he said.
On
Friday afternoon, residents in the Cuyama Valley area of Santa Barbara
County were dealing with a new round of flash floods and mudslides that
trapped cars. The National Weather Service reported that Bates Ridge saw
1.18 inches of rain in 30 minutes.
Warming Pacific waters has
been a topic of growing discussion among scientists in recent years.
Amid much debate about the cause, some experts blame the warming for
some sea life and bird deaths.
The storm was not related to El
Niño, the warm weather pattern that experts say is expected to produce
heavy rain in California this winter.
But John Dumas, a weather service meteorologist, said these storms offer a preview of what's to come.
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The
last major El Niño to hit California, in the late 1990s, caused deadly
flooding, mudslides and other problems. Across Southern California,
officials are racing to clear debris basins and make other preparations
so that the region's flood-control systems can combat the expected El
Niño downpours.
Thursday's storm shut Interstate 5 through the Grapevine and sent a sea of mud sweeping through country roads.
One
of the most dramatic scenes played out on Highway 58 east of Tehachapi.
There, mudslides trapped 200 vehicles, including dozens of
tractor-trailers and at least two tour buses filled with passengers.
In
one harrowing video, a driver caught the moment the mud overtook
vehicles on the 58. The man, Jose Antonio Vargas, frantically yells in
Spanish, "Someone call 911! Someone call 911! Help! The cars are being
inundated!"
Truck driver John Tate, 48, stayed overnight in his
rig. Surveying the scene on the 58 from his still-stuck big rig Friday,
Tate said, "It's like something you see on TV."
Tate had been
driving from North Carolina to Salinas to pick up a load of
strawberries. The rain came fast Thursday. Within five minutes, he said,
everything was washed out. Soon, cars in front of him started floating
by. He spent the night in his truck, watching the movie "Ghost Rider."
"It just happened so fast, I don't think anybody really had time to react," he said.
Trucker
Shannon Doyle was driving east on the 58 when rain and hail poured
down. As traffic ground to a halt, truckers began communicating with
their radios.
"Everyone was saying, 'Can't see. Can't see,'" the Fresno resident said. "It was just a mess."
Doyle
remained in his truck until 9 p.m. Thursday, when he finally mustered
the courage to venture outside. As he and other truckers scanned the sea
of mud and cars, Doyle saw four women, covered in mud from head to toe,
gripping their purses and blankets, their feet sloshing on the highway.
Search
and rescue crews appeared around midnight, followed by heavy equipment
that began excavating the mud. About 2 a.m., a helicopter flew over the
highway and shined a spotlight over the mountain.
By morning,
crews had dug away enough mud to allow tractor-trailers carrying horses
and cattle to drive away. At 9 a.m. Friday, Doyle was finally able to
turn his truck around to head back to Fresno.
No injuries had
been reported as of Friday afternoon, but crews were still plowing
through the mess. The highway will be closed between Mojave and
Tehachapi for several days, officials said.
Workers were scraping
the 58 and clearing an approximately mile-long stretch of mud, debris
and stacked vehicles, said California Highway Patrol Officer Robert
Rodriguez.
In all, the storm left an estimated 300,000 cubic yards of mud and debris on major roadways, including the 58, officials said.
U.S.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer on Friday sent a letter to the
Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
Army Corps of Engineers asking them to describe the measures taken to
prepare for floods and mudslides.
"Given four years of historic
drought, a devastating fire season, and likelihood that a strong El Niño
will bring heavy rains to California, the risk of flooding is
dangerously high," the California senators wrote. "We are already seeing
the potential for disaster." see more
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