The State : Flash Flood Buries Cars

Desert thundershowers sent a flash flood roaring through a canyon near Calico Ghost Town, swamping about five dozen parked cars, authorities said. “It tossed those cars like match sticks,” said San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. LeRoy Morgan after the Saturday flooding. The cars were parked near the 1881 gold mining town that has been preserved as a county regional park. The town sits on a ridge and its parking lot is in the canyon below. An unidentified woman was injured slightly as she got out of her van at the ghost town and fell while the water was rushing into the parking lot, Morgan said. Several tow services spent three hours removing cars, said Morgan. Some vehicles were buried so deep in mud that the doors would not open, he said. Flooding was also reported in nearby Barstow and the adjacent Calico Mountains.