Massive amounts of water from Tropical Storm Hilary flowed down California's mountains right into low spots in the town of Thousand Palms, trapping a large number of drivers in mud and deep water.
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00:00 Coachella Valley of California is a muddy mess, unfortunately, all due to
00:04 Hillary, which dumped in some cases almost a year's worth of rain in just a
00:08 matter of hours. Mackey Weathers Bill Waddell is live in 1000 palms and Bill
00:13 traffic seems to have started moving on Interstate 10 again as crews are
00:17 clearing the rocks, but I'm sure there's still a lot of work to come.
00:20 That's right. Hours, if not days of work ahead here along Interstate 10. You
00:26 could see big backups traffic barely moving here. This is the westbound
00:31 lanes crawling through. We haven't seen much traffic on the eastbound lanes
00:35 just because there's so much water and mud still on the highway. Take a closer
00:38 look. You could see just everything the crews here are dealing with.
00:43 Authorities say people if they can to avoid driving through this area, they
00:47 want to be able to focus on the cleanup, not the detours. All of the water from
00:51 Hillary came down off the mountains right into these low spots. A lot of
00:55 drivers got stuck in the mud and the washouts last night. Others waited at
00:59 home and then they tried to get out today. They ended up getting stuck to
01:04 where it's still been flooding in some places more than 24 hours later. Now,
01:09 people are being told the wait for a tow truck can be up to six hours. So good
01:13 Samaritans have been showing up, pushing and towing stuck cars and trucks out
01:18 helping locals like Felipe Mondez was trapped at the height of this storm.
01:25 I had to get out of the window. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Water was all the way to
01:30 here, right there. I wanna say thank you very much because you know, they three
01:35 people, they just help everybody. 1971 deuce and a half military truck. So we
01:41 thought we'd bring it out and help some people out. They've been stuck here for
01:44 hours. You know, some of them since last night.
01:46 Alex Gonzalez says he's glad he has an old military truck and that he's able
01:53 to help out his neighbors in need. Now it has been a very long night for some
01:58 of the people that were stuck here on I 10 for hours, either late last night
02:02 into the overnight hours, traffic started moving at points and there have
02:05 been more backups throughout the day. So again, they are asking people if you
02:09 tend to avoid traveling through this stretch of I 10. We've been speaking
02:14 with people who have lived here in this part of the Coachella Valley and desert
02:17 for decades. They tell us it does flood at times with storms. Many people say
02:20 they have never seen anything like the flooding and the mess left behind from
02:24 Hillary.
02:24 All right, well, there's Bill Waddell on the ground for us there in 1000
02:28 Palms, California. Glad to see traffic back on that interstate, but obviously
02:33 it's gonna take some time to get to where you're going. So we do know that
02:37 the rainfall it did leave some big time impacts and just want to highlight for
02:42 you right now. The radar showing you that interstate 10 as you work it into
02:46 the Los Angeles area is at least dry. So that's some good news. Bill Waddell
02:51 getting those sunny skies back in for us with a couple of clouds. It's not
02:55 quite the same view as what we saw yesterday.