Cleanup efforts and damage assessments were underway Tuesday east of Los Angeles after heavy rains unleashed mudslides in a mountain area scorched by a wildfire two years ago, sending boulders across roads, carrying away cars and prompting evacuations and shelter-in-place orders. Firefighters went street by street to make sure no residents were trapped after mud flows began inundating roads Monday night near the community of Forest Falls. Eric Sherwin, spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Fire Department, said crews hadn’t found anyone who needed to be rescued and no one was reported missing. Multiple homes and other structures had varying levels of damage, Sherwin said, including a commercial building where the mud was so high it collapsed the roof. Rocks, dead trees and other debris surged down slopes with astonishing force in Forest Falls, Oak Glen and Yucaipa, he said. “We have boulders that moved through that weigh multiple tons,” Sherwin said. “It could take days just to find all the cars that are missing because they are completely covered by mud.” Social media video from Oak Glen showed a torrent of mud racing down a hillside, across a road and into a restaurant parking lot. Perla Halbert had been out of town and returned to her Oak Glen home late Monday to find the driveway covered with a few inches of mud. Her family stayed the night with family members and returned after first light to discover several feet of mud and a fence washed away. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Halbert said. “If you try and take two steps, you get submerged. You just get stuck.” Her husband went to buy boots and coveralls before trekking through the muck to assess the damage. “There’s lots of rocks and so much mud. But hopefully the house itself is OK,” she said. Nearly 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain fell on Yucaipa Ridge. Concerns about more thunderstorms Tuesday prompted authorities to keep about 2,000 homes in the San Bernardino Mountains communities under evacuation orders. For some homes in Forest Falls, it was too late to evacuate Monday and residents were told to shelter in place through the night because it was safer than venturing out. The rains were the remnants of a tropical storm that brought high winds and some badly needed rainfall to drought-stricken Southern California last week, helping firefighters largely corral a wildfire that had been burning out of control about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the mudslides. The mud flows and flash flooding occurred in parts of the San Bernardino Mountains where there are burn scars — areas where there’s little vegetation to hold the soil — from the 2020 wildfires. “All of that dirt turns to mud and starts slipping down the mountain,” Sherwin said. One of the 2020 blazes, the El Dorado Fire, was sparked by a smoke device used by a couple to reveal their baby’s gender. A firefighter died and the couple was charged with involuntary manslaughter. About 40 miles (64 kilometers) west, Cal State San Bernardino reopened Tuesday, a day after the campus was closed when several buildings were flooded during heavy rains. The mudslides came after a week that saw California endure a record-long heatwave. Temperatures in many parts of the state rocketed past 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 […]

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