Storm Blamed for 1 Death
At least one man was killed in an accident and traffic was snarled in various parts of the Southern California mountains and deserts Monday as heavy thunderstorms accompanied by flash flooding, wind and hail developed in the wake of a moist and unstable air mass from the sea.
The California Highway Patrol was escorting traffic through a five-mile stretch of heavy rain and low visibility on the southbound Golden State Freeway near Gorman when a car collided with a pickup truck and the unidentified driver of the pickup was thrown to the pavement.
A CHP spokesman said a tractor-trailer rig in the next lane was unable to avoid the man in the roadway, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Elsewhere, thunderstorms developed in the afternoon and early evening in the Antelope Valley, Los Padres National Forest and San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. Rains touched off brief flash flooding that piled debris on California 138 from Little Rock in the Antelope Valley to the San Bernardino County line and utility spokesmen said there were numerous brief blackouts.
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