Crews Flown In To Rescue Stranded Motorists Along Ortega Highway
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO (CBSLA.com) — Helicopters ferried in search and rescue crews Wednesday to rescue the people in about three dozen vehicles that became stuck overnight on State Route 74, the Ortega Highway, in eastern Orange County.
Search and rescue crews from Orange and Riverside counties had to be ferried into the Santa Ana Mountains to drop them off along the winding road, which remained littered with stalled vehicles. Some of them had people inside them overnight, California Highway Patrol officers said just after daybreak.
By midday, authorities determined that no one was hurt and all the marooned people had been driven to safety.
Trees, overloaded with snow, had collapsed onto the road. Caltrans crews plowed Highway 74 and cleared the rocks and trees that had fallen by midafternoon, but the road also had heavy snow on the side of it in road cuts, a CHP officer said.
"There's lots of frozen runoff that's running onto the road, and will freeze into black ice tonight. That's what we were concerned about, and that's why the road will remain closed overnight," CHP Officer Larry Vicino said.
Snow made the Ortega Highway treacherous and impassable starting at about 10 p.m. Monday, CHP Officer Denise Quesada said. The highway remained closed past noon Wednesday, with no reopening scheduled.
The winding two-lane road, which tops out at about 3,300 feet in elevation, is the direct route between San Juan Capistrano in southern Orange County and Lake Elsinore in Riverside County. The closure affected about 20 miles of highway between Nichols Road, near San Juan Capistrano, and Grand Avenue at Lake Elsinore.
Drivers were advised to detour via Oceanside or Corona through Wednesday night.
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