Claremont Family Has To Clean Up Following Sudden Flash Flood
CLAREMONT (CBSLA.com) — A sudden downpour Sunday caused a lot of flooding in Claremont.
CBS2's Jeff Nguyen said hours later the rains have gone but the mess that it caused remains -- flooding, mud, standing water, canceled travel plans, traffic.
The sudden downpour was too much for intersections and homeowners.
Flooding was especially bad at the Mesisca home. Their welcome mat is buried under mud.
The kids had fun wading through the water at first. Then, mom got nervous.
"About 5 o'clock when she realized the water level was right at about the front door is when I started getting the panic texts. 'Call me. We need sand bags,'" said Mike Mesisca, an ER doctor.
"At the point where it was up to the top of the patio I started to panic a little bit and went to our firefighter neighbor. And got a couple of sandbags but not enough -- so I had to call my husband and get more," said Amie Mesisa.
There is also standing water in the family's backyard. They were surprised that so much water could come down in less than a half hour.
Mike was trying to wrap up his shift when he got the urgent message from his wife.
"I was taking care of patients in the ER," he told Nguyen, "fortunately, for me, one of colleagues was nice enough to take over some of my work so I could go home and check on my family."
Hopefully, Mesisca didn't need to take the 210 Freeway home.
On the 201 Freeway Sunday, driving conditions were extreme. Nguyen said he could barely see out of his windows.
It was bad enough in a car. For motorcycle riders, next to impossible.
"We were headed to Sturgis, South Dakota and it started coming down so hard just too dangerous out there. We pulled over here and stayed here for about half an hour," said Ross LaRue who was on a bike riding with his wife.
