{"id":111950,"date":"2025-12-29T04:12:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/111950\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T04:12:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:12:12","slug":"some-socal-mountain-residents-are-cut-off-buried-in-mud-after-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/111950\/","title":{"rendered":"Some SoCal mountain residents are cut off, buried in mud after storm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even after an evacuation warning was lifted<\/a> for the San Bernardino County mountain community of Lytle Creek, some residents remained stranded after a bridge was damaged while others contended with mounds of mud that had infiltrated homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tragic here,\u201d said Travis Guenther, 54, who lives in the town\u2019s Happy Jack neighborhood. \u201cThis is a horrible scene down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents of the community were ordered to leave their homes on Christmas Eve<\/a> as a fierce storm bore down on the region. But for the 280 residents of Happy Jack, it was impossible to drive out, according to Guenther.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

On Christmas Eve, floodwaters rise at the site of a bridge that serves the Happy Jack neighborhood of Lytle Creek.<\/p>\n

(Travis Guenther)<\/p>\n

The roads on either side of a bridge that serves as the sole entrance and exit of the neighborhood were washed out, he said. Officials said floodwaters from the creek destroyed those points of connection for the bridge.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, county public works crews constructed a temporary bridge essentially out of dirt, according to Capt. Shawn Millerick, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.<\/p>\n

A video he took around 1 p.m. shows bulldozers and other heavy machinery scooping heaps of sediment and moving logs. A rudimentary bridge was visible under now-blue skies.<\/p>\n

\"Bulldozers <\/p>\n

Heavy equipment was used Sunday to help build a temporary bridge to a Lytle Creek neighborhood that was cut off in the holiday storm.<\/p>\n

(San Bernardino County Fire Protection District)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tested a firetruck going across it,\u201d Millerick said Sunday afternoon. \u201cBecause the issue was that, in the event of an emergency, we need to be able to get access to those houses and people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t certain, however, whether residents could use it \u2014 it was still being built when he left.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Guenther said the structure couldn\u2019t be used by residents until an engineer came out to make sure it\u2019s safe. That\u2019s expected to happen Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re still trapped inside of our neighborhood, as far as all of our vehicles go,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lytle Creek was among San Bernardino County communities hit hard by the holiday storm, which brought a torrent of rain to parts of the San Gabriel Mountains. Residents of Wrightwood<\/a> also were digging out following the deluge. <\/p>\n

In Happy Jack, the water has receded, and many have walked out. But Guenther said that\u2019s not feasible for elderly residents.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, he estimated that about 30 homes were \u201cred tagged,\u201d or deemed unsafe to inhabit, after debris flows choked them with sludge. Power was shut off in those homes, he said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, Guenther was among a volunteer crew helping to dig out mud from an older woman\u2019s home. Members of the Sunrise Church in Rialto, who had shown up to lend a hand, were carrying out bucket after bucket. <\/p>\n

Over a video call, Guenther showed that he was able to raise his hand above a 10-foot roof, suggesting that he was standing on about 5 feet of mud. Cars were buried up to the tops of their wheels in sediment.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Guenther, who cares for stray and abandoned animals as chairman of a committee run through the Lytle Creek Community Center, was on alert for non-humans in need of help as well.<\/p>\n

Mud had smothered a koi pond on the woman\u2019s property, likely killing the fish, but two of four turtles were found alive. Guenther washed one of the turtles \u2014 a red-eared slider \u2014 with a water bottle, and it was recuperating in a bathtub.<\/p>\n

They also opened a cupboard to find five kittens, which the homeowner had never seen. Guenther believes they were sheltering there because of the intense storm.<\/p>\n

Other local felines may not have fared so well. Guenther said dozens of cats usually roam the area, but he had seen only about five amid the destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know people are focused on people right now, as they should be,\u201d Guenther said, \u201cbut there\u2019s a whole separate tragedy there with the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even after an evacuation warning was lifted for the San Bernardino County mountain community of Lytle Creek, some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7799,24710,60081,1073,48,52,51,47,50,49,60082,5155,60083,2621,288,28936,58759,61,776,60080,5050],"class_list":["post-111950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bridge","tag-hand","tag-happy-jack-neighborhood","tag-home","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lytle-creek-resident","tag-mud","tag-old-woman","tag-pound","tag-resident","tag-sediment","tag-shawn-millerick","tag-storm","tag-sunday","tag-travis-guenther","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}