The city of Oak Glen is located in the state of California. Cleanup efforts and damage assessments were underway Tuesday east of Los Angeles after heavy rains unleashed mudslides in a mountain area scorched by a fire two years ago.
After mud flows began inundating roads near the community of Forest Falls, firefighters went street by street to make sure no one was trapped. No one was reported missing and crews hadn't found anyone who needed to be rescued.
A commercial building where the mud was so high it collapsed the roof was one of the many structures that had different levels of damage. In Forest Falls, Oak Glen and Yucaipa, there were rocks, dead trees and other debris.
There are boulders that weigh a lot. It could take days to find all the cars that are missing.
A torrent of mud raced down a hillside, across a road and into a restaurant parking lot.
The driveway of Perla Halbert's Oak Glen home was covered in mud after she returned from a trip. Several feet of mud and a fence were washed away when her family came back after a night with them.
Halbert has never seen anything like this before. You get submerged if you take two steps. You become stuck.
After buying boots and coveralls, her husband went to assess the damage.
There is a lot of mud. She hopes the house is okay.
Rain fell on Yucaipa Ridge. About 2,000 homes in the San Bernardino Mountains were kept under an order to evacuate because of concerns about more storms.
It was too late for some people in Forest Falls to leave and they were told to stay in place through the night.
The remnants of a tropical storm that brought high winds and some badly needed rain to Southern California last week helped firefighters put out a fire that had been burning out of control about 30 miles south of the mudslides.
There are burn scars in the San Bernardino Mountains where there is little vegetation to hold the soil from the 2020 wildfires.
The dirt starts to slip down the mountain.
A smoke device used by a couple to reveal their baby's gender was the cause of one of the 2020 fires. The couple was charged with manslaughter.
Cal State San Bernardino reopened Tuesday a day after it was closed due to flooding.
The electrical grid in the state was put to the breaking point because of the high temperatures. There are two fires burning in California, one in Southern California and the other in the eastern part of the state.
The tropical storm aided in the fight against the fire. By Tuesday, the blaze had been contained to 44 square miles. The fire destroyed at least 30 homes and other structures in the county.
According to the California Department of Fire Protection, the Mosquito Fire has grown to over 200 square miles. While crews were able to take advantage of cooler temperatures and higher humidity to strengthen control lines, more than 5,800 structures in Placer and El Dorado counties were still under threat.
There were dangerous levels of particulate pollution detected by government and private monitors in parts of eastern Oregon and Washington, Northern California, central Idaho and western Montana due to the smoky skies from the fires. People were told to stay indoors until the pollution cleared.
As of Monday, the Bolt Creek Fire was 2% contained and had burned more than 30 square miles of forestland. An incident management team and additional fire crews were on their way.
In Oregon, the Cedar Creek Fire, which has burned for over a month across Lane and Deschutes counties south of Portland, was not as large as previously thought. Firefighters were protecting homes in the mountains. People were warned to be prepared to leave at a moment's notice.
Climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will make weather more extreme and destructive in the future, according to scientists. California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in its history in the last five years.
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Weber made a contribution to the report from LA.
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