Anton Sommer’s cell phone was down to one percent and it was unclear when the power would be restored to his Forest Falls neighborhood, one of several San Bernardino Mountain communities impacted by mudslides.
“Almost all my neighbors have minor damage,” he said in a short phone interview Friday.
As remnants of Tropical Storm Mario dumped inches of rain on Southern California’s mountains and foothills, Sommer said mud debris poured into the backyard of his neighborhood’s homes, toppling at least one residential propane tank that started to leak gas.
He said vehicles were submerged in mud too, while photos from the area shared on social media showed power poles leaning and two lane roads buried in mud with large boulders, tree branches and roots blocking the way through.
On Thursday, thunderstorms rolled through the region, dropping inches of rain across the Angeles National Forest. The downpours created a slew of issues for isolated mountain communities, many where the landscape has been scorched by wildfire in recent years.
Sommer, who lives off Torrey Pines Drive, said his neighbor’s home three doors down was hit the hardest. The home sits just off Slide Creek.
He said his neighbor and a friend were inside when “the mud blasted through by the flood.”
“The guy barely hung on when the the mud came through,” he said of his neighbor.
The mud, Sommer said, poured through the home, knocked out a deck and took down the garage door, damaging tools his neighbor uses for work as a mechanic.
Neighborhood resident Ted Hirscher said he was home yesterday when his neighbor came over around 3 p.m as the flooding was underway.
“He was traumatized and hysterical that his house was destroyed, his two dogs and two cats were inside and that they were all dead,” Hirscher said in a phone interview.
His neighbor managed to locate one of the cats before hiking down from the community, he said. This morning he heard people cheering happily.
“I went out to see and one of my neighbor’s was telling me they found a dog,” he said. “Sure enough it was Daisy.”
Daisy, a pitbull, is sweet and was very calm despite the trauma it had experienced, Hirscher added.
He said he called his neighbor to tell him that one of the dogs had been found. Hirscher was going to care for the dog in his cabin but San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe, who was surveying the damage in the area, took the dog to reunite it with its owner.
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