Cranston Fire burn area goes through 3rd day of monsoonal storms
Heavy downpour continues to be a major concern for mountain communities still recovering from the Cranston Fire.
Riverside County Emergency Services had scheduled a meeting in Idyllwild to discuss flood preparedness but because of today’s weather conditions, that meeting had to be canceled.
One official wants to remind people to listen to warnings.
“When a warning comes out, they should consider that a voluntary evacuation and that is absolutely their best time to leave,” said Jerry Hagen of Riverside County Emergency Services. “Once a flash flood watch is issued, the water is already falling it’s probably too late.”
For the third day in a row, homes and roadways were threatened by pop-up storms. Hagen says today’s mud and debris flow were at its strongest of the week.
“It caused some folks to get cut off from their regular transit roads. and it caused highway 74 and parts of 143 to be closed for a while,” Hagen said.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/Caltrans8/status/1030598493700874240″,”author_name”:”Caltrans District 8″,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/Caltrans8″,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Video of debris flow on SR-74 in the Hurkey Creek Area. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TurnAroundDontDrown?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#TurnAroundDontDrown&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/LAfUcOMYHL”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/LAfUcOMYHL&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Caltrans District 8 (@Caltrans8) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/Caltrans8/status/1030598493700874240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 17, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies asked dozens of drivers to park in a safe place while they wait for Highway 74 to re-open.
“They said there’s another storm coming at 4, so I don’t know what we should do,” one driver told KESQ & CBS Local 2.
This debris flow caused the closure and forcing multiple tent campers out of the Lake Hemet camp grounds clean-up crews seen all over the mountain.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/RivCoReady/status/1030609857433530368″,”author_name”:”RivCoReady”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/RivCoReady”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Mud flows in the Apple Canyon and Hurkey Creek areas today, Friday 8/17/18, from &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CranstonFlashFlood?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#CranstonFlashFlood&#lt;/a&#gt;. These areas were burned weeks ago in the &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/CranstonFire?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#CranstonFire&#lt;/a&#gt;. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/Caltrans8?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@Caltrans8&#lt;/a&#gt; already working to clear the roads. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/RSO?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@RSO&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/NWSSanDiego?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;@NWSSanDiego&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/5NaoVdBf6t”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/5NaoVdBf6t&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— RivCoReady (@RivCoReady) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/RivCoReady/status/1030609857433530368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 18, 2018&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
In Idyllwild, some people are hoping the rain doesn’t come down too hard.
“The biggest issue with it flooding right now is we’re putting on a 3-day event. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there’s bands all over town, we’re trying to get people up here to see the music, and half the roads were closed,” said Juls Phillips of Idyllwild.
The town is hosting a benefit concert with donations going to Cranston Fire victims. Artist are hoping people still come and support the mountain communities this weekend.
“There’s only two ways up, you can come through Banning its really stable. Anyway from Hemet to Garner Valley, Mountain Center, it’s going to be tough. We’re hoping it stays clear tomorrow for these concerts, the town needs it, they need people up, so if you’re around, please come on up,” Juls added.
Saturday and Sunday’s concerts will begin at noon, it’s free and all are invited. Donations will go to the Cranston Fire victims and are tax deductible.
