Sudden heavy rain in Southern California unleashes mudslides, 2-year-old
drowns in floodwaters
[September 20, 2025]
By DAMIAN DOVARGANES and AMY TAXIN
YUCAIPA, Calif. (AP) — Sudden heavy rain east of Los Angeles unleashed
mudslides that plowed into homes and trapped drivers for hours on
roadways while floodwaters swept away a vehicle carrying a father who
was later rescued and his-2-year-old son who drowned, authorities said
Friday.
Authorities rescued 10 people traveling in at least six vehicles who
were stranded on state Route 38 in the area of Jenks Lake, near the San
Bernardino National Forest, the fire district said. The route is narrow
and winds through towering trees, curving back and forth up the
mountainside and linking cities east of Los Angeles with the resort town
of Big Bear Lake.
No one was hurt, and no one is reported missing, Christopher Prater, a
public information officer for the San Bernardino County Fire Protection
District, said Friday.
Elsewhere in San Bernardino County, a 2-year-old boy drowned after his
family’s vehicle was swept off the road by floodwaters Thursday night in
Barstow, according to a statement from the city. The boy’s father was
separated from his son as they were both swept away by the water, and he
was later rescued, according to officials. The boy's body was found
Friday.
The mudslides affected the tiny mountain communities of Forest Falls,
Oak Glen and Potato Canyon, the county’s fire protection district said
in a statement. One home in Forest Falls had giant tree trunks flung in
its yard and piled so high they reached the roof.
Forest Falls was walloped by mudslides three years ago. That was just
two years after wildfires ripped through the area, leaving burn scars,
or areas where there is little vegetation to hold the soil.
Intense rains pounded the area for more than an hour Thursday afternoon
as remnants of Tropical Storm Mario reached the mountainous region, the
National Weather Service said.
Kael Steel told KNBC-TV he was driving down the mountain from Big Bear
to head to an amusement park when the rain started pounding.
“Suddenly we started seeing rocks and stuff coming down the side of the
mountain,” he said.
Steel said cars were turning around telling him the road was blocked. So
he headed back up the mountain, but was blocked again. He turned around
once more and said the road he had crossed 30 seconds earlier had been
wiped away.
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Workers clean up the damage caused by mudslides after storms in
Yucaipa, Calif., Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
“There's no road there anymore,” he said.
The route was still closed as of Friday, the California Highway
Patrol said.
Authorities planned to assess the hillside areas impacted by the
slides to determine the extent of the damage.
“The community obviously has been impacted fairly significantly,”
Prater said. “How bad, we don’t know yet.”
With the possibility of more storms forecast for Friday, San
Bernardino County fire officials asked residents to stay alert, and
an evacuation warning was in effect for mountain communities already
impacted by Thursday’s storm. By Friday evening, the evacuation
warning had been lifted, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office
said in a post on the social platform X.
Forest Falls saw 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) of rain fall in an
hour, and another half inch (1.3 centimeters) after that — far more
than the arid Southern California region usually sees, said Kyle
Wheeler, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San
Diego.
The rain also fell much faster, Wheeler said, adding that the
rainfall rates for summer thunderstorms in the region are more
typically about a half inch (1.3 centimeters) per hour.
“They got almost two inches of rain in a two-hour time period,”
Wheeler said. “The fact that it happened in such a flood-prone
location is just an unfortunate event.”
_____
Taxin reported from Santa Ana. Associated Press writer Hallie Golden
in Seattle contributed to this report.
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