LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thunderstorms pushed in by a Pacific hurricane brought rain to inland parts of Southern California on Sunday, flooding streets and freeway lanes that left dozens of cars stuck in the knee-deep water.
The National Weather Service said the storm dropped as much as nearly 3 inches of rain in Hemet and 2 inches of rain in the San Jacinto Mountains in Riverside County.
The California Highway Patrol reported flooding along almost all inland freeways, stranding dozens of cars and forcing lane closures.
About 70 vehicles got stranded when water came over the guardrail along Highway 74 in the San Jacinto Mountains community of Mountain Center, California Department of Transportation spokeswoman Terri Kasinga said.
The storm toppled trees across the northern half of Riverside, and there were scattered reports of downed utility poles and snapped power lines throughout the inland region, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported (http://bit.ly/1rSK7fA ).
Isolated thunderstorms were expected to continue into Sunday evening and Monday, with the potential for flash floods in valley, mountain and desert areas, said Cynthia Palmer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego.
She said Hurricane Norbert was helping push moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Dolly across northern Mexico and into the southwestern United States.
“This is a typical late summer, early fall thunderstorm that we get from time to time,” Palmer said.
