October 19, 2015

EXTREME WEATHER: Mudslide buries I-5 north of Los Angeles in 5 feet of mud

Doug Stanglin and Doyle Rice,
USA TODAY 3:48 p.m. EDT October 16, 2015

Emergency teams rescued 14 people from a section of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles late Thursday after flash floods unleashed mudslides that stranded hundreds of vehicles and forced many drivers to scramble to the roof tops of their cars.

One rain gauge in the Leona Valley reported 3.38 inches of rain in one hour (of which 1.81 inches was in 30 minutes), which the National Weather Service in Los Angeles described as a "1,000-year rainfall event."

A "1,000 year" event means that there's a 1-in-1,000 (or 0.1% chance) of it happening in any given year in a given location, the weather service said. This is at least the 7th "1,000-year rain event" in the U.S. since 2010, according to a USA TODAY analysis.

Up to five feet of mud covered some parts of the northbound lane of the freeway 75 miles north of L.A., around Fort Tejon State Park. Hundreds of vehicles remained stuck in the mud as of Friday morning, the Associated Press reported.

More than 45 miles of I-5 is closed from Santa Clarita to north of Fort Tejon State Park, according to the California Department of Transportation.

Click on Link:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/10/16/drivers-rescued-mudslide-covers-calif-freeway/74041950/