Lake Arrowhead community relatively unscathed after heavy rain from remnants of Hilary
LAKE ARROWHEAD — While mudslides and debris flow from Hilary damaged at least two bridges and some homes in the hills of San Bernardino County, mountain residents near Lake Arrowhead appeared to come out fairly unscathed.
"Oh, it's awesome up here," said Bruce Cardwell "It's the best place to live in Southern California. We're 20 degrees cooler than anywhere else."
At about 4,500 feet, with steep, wooded hillsides in every direction, the Arrowhead Tree Top Lodge sits right on top of a confluence of small waterways.
"From the 173 up here you've got the storm drain that comes down here," Cardwell said of the property's drainage. "And comes into this here, and goes into our stream here."
So across the mountain, people like Bruce Cardwelll spent the final hours ahead of the storm checking every possible trouble spot — unsure of what was coming.
"We made sure to clean up all of our drains and everything," he said. "So that we were prepared for it."
And as the evening settled in, so did the storm picking up intensity as it pushed up against the mountains bringing tremendous rain and wind.
The bulk of the weather didn't get into the high country until late on Sunday night. There was a lot of discussion about whether or not this would look like what they're used to seeing in this area.
The area does get a lot of rain, and the place is built to move water. But residents were not sure if it was it going to work like they are accustomed to seeing or if it would prove to be something different.
"I've seen rain like that and other parts of the country. Never here," Nathan Godwin said.
Godwin is the General Manager of Lake Gregory, which jumped several feet in a matter of hours.
"We were at a foot and a half up yesterday," Godwin explained. "We're at 4 feet now. So, normally, we drive around this edge of the lake."
The edge of the lake is now littered with everything that came flowing downhill overnight, but the storm drains did their job.
There were no major problems, just some cleaning up to do after a night of very atypical weather.
"We fared pretty well," he said.
The grocery store for this community actually collapsed under the weight of tremendous snowfall back in March. So a remarkable year of weather was now punctuated by a tropical system when the risk of fire danger is the usual concern.
