About 100 cars stranded in Central California

Hundreds of cars were stuck in the mud after an aggressive storm unleashed flash floods and a mudslide hurling through Interstate 5 and Route 58 in southern California.

Thursday’s storm triggered flash floods throughout the area, about 75 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Gary and Gina Hartle, who own a 70-acre horse ranch in Lake Hughes, said they have so much work to restore their property, they have no idea how long it will take. On Friday, those and rescuers described a chaotic scene that somehow made no reported injuries or deaths. “The water was up to her hips and she had to escape for her life and her unborn child’s life”. Emergency crews were working to dig out head-high mounds of mud from the 58 and Interstate 5, which was also shut down as hundreds of cars were trapped in the mud Thursday.

She said the two homes on the land seemed like they were fine, but that one of the homes was without water because of an inundated pump, and their 20-foot trailer is nowhere in sight.

Several feet of mud, debris and car-sized boulders blocked the highway as a powerful cell hit the area around 3 p.m. Thursday, stranding hundreds of vehicles and forcing a few motorists to take refuge on top of their cars. “I’ve never seen it rain that hard in such a short period of time, the hail and wind – it was coming down hard”, he said.

Nearby Interstate 5 reopened on the northbound side at about 1 p.m. Friday in the Grapevine area, California Highway Patrol officials announced.

Deputies and Public Works crews were also going door-to-door to check if anyone was trapped, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Bill Wells, a local rancher, was walking through the area looking for his livestock on Friday morning. “I think they’re all dead”, said Wells, who was near tears.

A fresh round of flash flooding stranded dozens of vehicles on a highway in Central California, but the troubles appear to be only temporary.

But the vehicles, including a school bus, were able to start moving again and weren’t expected to need rescuing, Santa Barbara County fire spokesman Dave Zaniboni said.

“But John Dumas, a weather service meteorologist, said these storms offer a preview of what’s to come”. While drought-plagued California is eager for rain, the forecast of a potentially El Nino event has communities clearing out debris basins, and urging residents to stock up on emergency supplies and even talking about how a deluge could affect the 50th Super Bowl.