Some evacuation orders lifted in San Bernardino County towns hit by debris flows
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
San Bernardino’s second major debris flow began late last week in San Diego County. In the process, it left more than 20 buildings destroyed, killed two people and swept the streets of several communities and towns.
San Bernardino County has ordered emergency evacuations in towns near the debris flows; Santa Barbara County also ordered evacuation.
The first flow began in Temecula on Nov. 4, when the Santa Ana winds whipped up a debris field a mile wide and three miles long as heavy rains left the area inundated with three feet of mud and debris that had drifted into the mountains by the time the first rain fell.
The flow quickly advanced north toward San Diego County, where the county ordered a mandatory evacuation for residents of Temecula. The second flow emerged just days later in San Bernardino, where the county ordered a mandatory evacuation for residents of the communities of Alpine Village and San Bernardino, among others.
The winds that carried the debris flow have since died down and the streams remain largely channeled, though the water is still visible in many areas.
In the process, the county has cleared up a backlog of debris that was collected in the hills of the San Bernardino foothills after the original debris flow, which hit on Dec. 21, 2010, when winds were pushing and pulling the mud and debris across the county.
“We have done the work to clean up the debris field, and as soon as it’s safe to do so, we will start the process of removing all of that material,” said Gary Lyle, San Bernardino County spokesman.
In the meantime, though, the debris flow has left many residents scrambling to find housing elsewhere.
“We saw a lot of destroyed buildings, I think about 90 out of 200, maybe a couple at a time are destroyed,” said Mike Shaffer, the owner and manager of a business in Alpine Village.
“We live on a corner, and we are trying to find a place.”
San Bernardino County ordered evacuations for residents in the communities of Alpine Village and San Bernardino, in addition to nearby Campo where a mandatory evacuation ordered for those living in the area of the debris field.
