Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby reported live from Forest Falls, California, where a mudslide triggered by Tropical Storm Hilary cut off community members on the evening of Aug. 20.
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00:00 the storm. And we're going to
00:01 talk about that in a moment.
00:02 But first, let's talk about
00:05 the storm. Hillary making push
00:06 across Southern California is
00:08 a tropical storm. Only the
00:10 fourth tropical storm to move
00:12 in the Southern California
00:14 since records have been taken.
00:15 Joining us now with more on
00:17 what's happening with Hillary
00:19 is storm chaser Aaron Rigsby
00:22 near Baymont, California. Now
00:22 this is just east of San
00:26 Bernardino. And Aaron, are you
00:29 with me? Yeah, I'm with you. I
00:31 am. I'm here in Forest Falls,
00:33 California, and just moments to
00:36 go right beside me. There was a
00:38 massive mudslide that was just
00:40 triggered. It completely wiped
00:42 out the roadway beside me, and
00:43 that big debris flow is slowly
00:45 making its way down this main
00:47 road that comes into Forest
00:48 Falls. I saw boulders probably
00:50 weighing 10 times coming down.
00:53 That huge burn scar area. I
00:54 can't tell if any structures
00:55 have been affected yet, but it
00:57 was just a huge, huge debris
00:58 flow that came flowing down
00:59 this roadway. It's just a
01:00 massive, massive debris flow
01:01 that's just coming down this
01:05 roadway. Seeing around you are
01:07 people still out and about on
01:09 the roadways at this point in
01:09 time, or people starting to
01:12 settle in for the night.
01:14 Unfortunately no, I've seen
01:15 multiple people come up and
01:17 down this road. It's definitely
01:18 a lot less traffic than some of
01:20 those big cities like Los
01:22 Angeles closer to where we were
01:24 earlier in Palm Springs, but it
01:25 seems like a lot of people
01:27 stayed behind. Like I said,
01:28 they're still out and about
01:30 and they're still in the
01:31 middle of the night. So they
01:32 are going to be cut off for
01:33 quite some time until they
01:35 clear this roadway and actually
01:36 the rainfall is coming down the
01:36 heaviest I've had all day
01:40 today. Currently right now. And
01:42 have you seen a lot of
01:43 emergency personnel out? We
01:45 know that they are going to be
01:47 very busy and very strained
01:48 through the upcoming hours.
01:48 Have they been able to get to
01:49 these kinds of things quickly?
01:54 Unfortunately up here, there's
01:55 only one fire department and
01:56 they're pretty much all on
01:57 alert. They're going to be
01:59 monitoring the roadways. They
02:00 were able to get a couple of
02:01 people that came through there
02:03 to clear the roadways. But
02:04 unfortunately, this one that
02:05 just happened is going to be
02:07 out of their hands, and they're
02:09 going to be pretty overwhelmed
02:10 down further down closer to the
02:12 big season, Palm Springs and
02:13 Los Angeles. They were doing a
02:15 remarkable job at monitoring
02:16 those roadways, getting them
02:18 blocked off before debris flow
02:19 would come through, even though
02:20 we saw a bunch of stranded
02:22 motors earlier in Cathedral
02:24 City. Other than they've been
02:25 able to get a couple of people
02:27 to clear the roadways. They're
02:28 going to be doing a great job
02:29 of that. And that's all
02:30 reporting for us on the ground
02:33 in California. Of course, a
02:35 very busy night for many
02:36 emergency managers and all
02:38 sorts of personnel.
02:39 Unfortunately that are going to
02:40 be keeping an eye on this
02:41 through the night, so expect