Workers Clear Mud From Sole Road to Mountain Town

FOREST FALLS, Calif. —  Rescue crews plowed through a mass of mud Friday, opening the only road into this mountain community a day after a slide isolated it.

No serious injuries were reported in the town of 800, but at least 20 buildings were damaged, San Bernardino County fire authorities said. Two of them were destroyed by mud, rocks and water, said Doug Crawford, a spokesman for the Fire Department.

Assessment teams were scouting the damage Friday afternoon after bulldozers cleared a lane of the town’s only thoroughfare, a spur off California 38 north of Banning, about 85 miles east of Los Angeles.

A thunderstorm touched off a flash flood late Thursday and sent a wall of mud 15 feet high and 150 feet wide across the road.

Rescuers accounted for eight of 10 overnight campers who had registered with the Forest Service. The other two were not expected to come down until Friday night, and there was no reason to believe they ran into trouble, said Crawford.

“We think they were high enough that it didn’t affect them,” he said.

Rescuers poked though mud-encrusted cars, making sure no one was trapped. They also recovered propane tanks swept up in the flood.