By ANDREW DALTON and TAMI ABDOLLAH
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An elevated section of
Interstate 10 collapsed Sunday amid heavy rains in the California
desert, injuring one driver, stranding many others, and halting travel
for thousands by cutting off both directions of a main corridor between
Southern California and Arizona.
"Interstate 10 is closed completely and
indefinitely," said Terri Kasinga, spokeswoman for the California
Department of Transportation.
A bridge for eastbound traffic about 15 feet above a
normally dry wash about 50 miles west of the Arizona state gave way and
ended up in the flooding water below, the California Highway Patrol
said, blocking all traffic headed toward Arizona.
The westbound section of the freeway near the tiny
town of Desert Center also closed. The roadway was intact but extremely
undermined by flooding and could need just-as-extensive rebuilding,
Kasinga said.
No timeframe was given for when either side would reopen as crews were diverted from other projects to examine the site.
"They won't even be able to begin assessing the damage until Monday," Kasinga said.
That means those seeking to travel between
California and Arizona would be forced to go hundreds of miles out of
their way to Interstate 8 to the south or Interstate 40 to the north.
Busy I-10 is the most direct route between Phoenix and parts of Southern California, including Los Angeles.
Transportation officials recommended travelers on
the east side of the collapse use U.S. Highway 95 in Arizona to get to
the other freeways, and that in California drivers use state routes 86
and 111 to get to Interstate 8 into Arizona.
One driver had to be rescued from a pickup truck
that crashed in the collapse and was taken to a hospital with moderate
injuries, the Riverside County Fire Department said. A passenger from
the truck was able to get out without help and wasn't hurt.
Hundreds of other cars were stranded immediately
after the collapse, but the California Highway Patrol was working to
divert them in the other direction off the freeway and it wasn't clear
if any remained, Kasinga said.
Pamala Browne, 53, and her daughter were driving
from Flagstaff, Arizona to Palm Desert, California when they got
stranded when the westbound lanes were shutdown.
"Oh my God, we are so stuck out here," Browne told
the Desert Sun newspaper. "There's no end to the cars that are stuck out
here."
The rains came amid a second day of showers and
thunderstorms in southern and central California that were setting
rainfall records in what is usually a dry month.
Rain fell Sunday afternoon in parts of Los Angeles
County's mountains, the valley north and inland urban areas to the east.
The city also was expected to get a late repeat of Saturday's scattered
showers and occasional downpours as remnants of tropical storm Dolores
brought warm, muggy conditions northward.
"We have a chance of some more heavy rain in LA
County this evening, thunderstorms, lightning, possibly some localized
street flooding," said National Weather Service meteorologist Joe
Sirard.
The showers forced the Los Angeles Angels' first rainout in 20 years and the San Diego Padres' first rainout since 2006.
Saturday's rainfall broke records in at least 11
locations, including five places that had the most rain ever recorded on
any day in July, Sirard said.
July is typically the driest month of the year in
Southern California. Because of that, Saturday's 0.36 inch of rain in
downtown Los Angeles exceeded the 0.24 inch recorded July 14, 1886,
which had been the wettest July day in nearly 130 years.
The record is especially significant, Sirard said,
because downtown Los Angeles has the longest recording climate station,
dating back to July 1, 1877.
Saturday's storm brought flash floods and power
outages and turned Los Angeles County's typically packed coast into
empty stretches of sand when the threat of lightning forced authorities
to close 70 miles of beaches.
Signs warned beachgoers to avoid storm drain flows
into the ocean because of Saturday's sometimes heavy rain. The Los
Angeles County Department of Public Health recommends people avoid
swimming within 100 yards of a storm drain for 72 hours after heavy
rain.
Warnings were also in place for high surf and
strong rip currents on all south-facing beaches, including Venice, Santa
Monica, Malibu, Zuma, Newport and Huntington, officials said.
Meanwhile, the summer storm has helped firefighters advance on two wildfires that broke out Friday.
Muggy, moist conditions were expected to persist through Monday.
Copyright 2015 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
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(Mindy Schauer/The Orange County Register via AP). Ezekiel Ekinaka, 1, with his parents Aaron and Juliet, wears a raincoat as he experiences rain for the second time in his life, at the San Clemente, Calif. Ocean Festival before the public was urged to...
(Mindy Schauer/The Orange County Register via AP). As storm clouds loom in the distance, lifeguards advise people to leave the pier and beach during the Ocean Festival in San Clemente, Calif.
(Weather Underground via AP). This NOAA satellite image taken Saturday, July 18, 2015, at 1:00 p.m. EDT shows high pressure over much of the Pacific Northwest with mostly sunny skies. In contrast, moisture from Tropical Storm Dolores is streaming north...
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