WRIGHTWOOD, Calif. – Powerful winter storms brought the wettest Christmas season to Southern California in years, sending mud and debris sliding and half-filling homes with mud.
There was still a risk of more flash flooding and mudslides Friday despite slackening rain around Los Angeles, the National Weather Service warned.
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“It’s not going to take a whole lot to create some hazards on the highways,” said Mike Wofford, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Los Angeles. “Still not quite out of the woods, but for the most part, the worst is over.”
Firefighters rescued over 100 people Thursday in Los Angeles County, with one helicopter pulling 21 people from stranded cars, officials said. LA police also responded to more than 350 traffic collisions, the mayor's office said.
In Wrightwood, a 5,000-resident mountain town about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles, the roads turned into rivers when relentless rains came down Wednesday, residents said. On Friday, cars were still buried up to their windows in rocks, debris and thick mud.
Sherry Tocco's neighborhood was devastated, she said Friday. Several of her neighbors’ homes were destroyed, but her house was spared from mud and debris.
The river was raging and “then it just came through and destroyed, took everything with it,” she said.
A shed was washed down the road, and several others were strewn about. Firefighters helped her evacuate earlier this week and she slept in her car on Christmas Eve.
Tocco, who has lived in the area since 1965 and raised her kids there, said there's no reason to leave, even after the storms.
“Just keep shoveling, what else can I do?” Tocco said.
Most of the town lost power and many were buying fire starters, logs and propane for generators to keep warm, said Eric Faulkner, manager of Mountain Hardware.
“My phone's been nonstop of, ‘do you have this?’ or ‘can you help me with that?’" Faulkner said outside the store while it rained Friday.
Manny Simpson, a Wrightwood resident of 14 years, said the storms were the worst he's seen. His basement was flooded, but he was still counting himself lucky.
“I've seen some other houses and I feel good about what happened to me," he said.
Fire officials rescued several people from trapped cars earlier this week when mud and debris cascaded down a road into town. There was one injury reported.
In nearby the mountain town of Lytle Creek, raging waters destroyed a bridge Wednesday, cutting off a neighborhood to car traffic, resident Travis Guenther said. By Friday morning, he said, water subsided enough for people to walk across the debris.
Guenther and others were checking on neighbors Friday. One home had as much as 4 feet (122 centimeters) of debris piled up inside after mud blew through the front door earlier this week, he said.
“The guys are still trying to stay there but they can’t shut their doors,” he said. “They were stuck inside because there was a raging river on either side of them.”
Dozens of homes were in a similar situation. Another family started sleeping in their shed after mud filled their home, he said.
The system brought the wettest Christmas season to downtown Los Angeles in 54 years, the National Weather Service said. The area recorded 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain in three days, while the mountain areas saw up to 12 inches (30.5 centimeters), Wofford said.
Forecasters expected a dry weekend before more rain around New Year's Eve.
Waves near the San Francisco Bay Area could reach up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) Friday, and many parts of northern California remained under a flood watch through Friday.
More wind and as much as 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snowfall an hour was expected in the Sierra Nevada, making mountain pass travel treacherous.
A falling tree killed a San Diego man Wednesday, news outlets reported. Farther north, a Sacramento sheriff’s deputy died in what appeared to be a weather-related crash. Heavy rain and flash flooding earlier this week in Northern California also caused at least one death, officials said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared emergencies in six counties to allow state assistance.
The state deployed resources and first responders to several coastal and Southern California counties, and the California National Guard was on standby.
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Associated Press writers Trân Nguyễn in Sacramento, California, and Sophie Austin in Oakland, California, contributed.