As remnants of Tropical Storm Mario hit California last week, a series of flash floods and mudslides turned deadly.
The City of Barstow announced that, following a 20 hour search, a 2 year old boy was found dead after floodwaters swept him and his father away.
When the downpour hit Southern California on Thursday, the inland region east of Los Angeles was thrown into chaos. Dramatic footage shows floodwaters and mudslides buying roads and damaging homes in the area.
In Barstow, Brandon Padilla Aguilera, age 26, and his son, Xavier Padilla Aguilera, age 2, were traveling together in a vehicle on the west side of the city when floodwaters overtook their car and swept them away.
The father and son were separated by the floodwaters. Brandon was located alive on an island created by mudslides. After almost a full day of searching, the boy’s body was located in a city flood control channel.
Flash floods and mudslides are unfortunately not uncommon in this region. A similar mudslide hit the area just three years ago.
Forest Falls saw 1.5 inches of rain fall in an hour, and another half inch after that. That’s much more than the arid Southern California region usually sees, said Kyle Wheeler, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in San Diego.
The rain also fell much faster, Wheeler said, adding that the rainfall rates for summer thunderstorms in the region are more typically about a half inch per hour.
“They got almost two inches of rain in a two-hour time period,” Wheeler said. “The fact that it happened in such a flood-prone location is just an unfortunate event.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
