Some evacuation orders lifted in San Bernardino County towns hit by debris flows
By the time her husband’s evacuation order cleared, Irene had already packed up her house and moved with her husband to an evacuation center in San Bernardino County.
Irene’s husband, who is also a San Bernardino County firefighter, said he believed life “would go on” despite the devastation to their town.
Her husband, who was diagnosed with lymphoma when she was pregnant, knew there was a better chance he would survive if they relocated to a government shelter, he said.
A total of 27 miles of evacuation orders have been lifted. San Bernardino County officials have released 13,000 people from evacuation centers and said they hope about 1,100 residents will return to their homes by Jan. 7.
The orders came after the massive debris flows caused by Tuesday’s storm swamped small towns and cities along the Colorado River and caused thousands of power outages. The rains caused water to flow over levees and flood more than 50,000 acres, destroying homes and trapping people in their homes for days.
The floodwaters receded Tuesday after a mandatory evacuation, but the storm is still dumping rain and snow on parts of the region.
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In the wake of the storm, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for Orange County and San Bernardino County. The watch was lifted in San Bernardino County and Orange County as of Friday morning, when it had been in effect for 24 hours.
The weather service said wind gusts were not expected to exceed 50 mph in San Bernardino County and Orange County Friday.
A total of 18,000 people had been evacuated as of Friday morning, most of those were from the Tintenman Road area in Riverside, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Fuchs.
The agency issued an evacuation order at 5 p.m. Tuesday for most of the town of Orange, about 50 miles southwest of San Bernardino, because of heavy rain and high wind.
That order was rescinded Friday morning because of lower levels of sustained winds, Fuchs said.
There are still evacuations from Tintenman Road
