CNN is reporting that torrential rain and rapid mudslides shut down a Southern California town Sunday, standing thousands of people and trapping 500 children and adults at a church camp.
So far, there have been no reports of injuries or missing residents in Forest Falls, population 2,000. Hauducoeur said the damage to homes due to flooding has not been severe.
But elsewhere in San Bernardino County, one person was found dead inside a vehicle that was swept off the road and into a creek by floodwater, county fire department spokesman Chris Prater said.
And 1,500 people in the nearby community of Glen Oak were stranded due to flash flooding, said Dennis Mathisen of Cal Fire.
The deluge combined with the terrain made conditions especially daunting.
“Try to imagine the bands of rains from a hurricane — that’s what we’re getting,” Hauducoeur said. “The difference (is) it’s hitting mountains. What was a dry river bed could become a river 6 feet deep, 20 feet wide.”