Monsoon rains dump on Southern California, flooding fields, streets

A cell of heavy rain moved through Hemet on Wednesday and Thursday, leaving between six and 10 inches of standing water in some areas and up to two feet in others. Maintenance crews moved through the town, trying to clear drainage ditches and flooded streets to allow the water to disperse.

TV helicopter news crews broadcast images of children coasting along on boards attached to trucks as adults drove up and down flooded residential streets.

National Weather Service forecasters said the rain was part of the same monsoon weather pattern that caused torrential flooding in Las Vegas, dumping three inches of rain there in one day and killing at least two people.

Cities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties reported flooding, including the desert areas of Twentynine Palms and Palm Springs east of Los Angeles.

An area outside Twentynine Palms received an inch of rain in an hour and 20 minutes Thursday afternoon, said forecaster Frank O'Leary. Palm Springs also reported one-tenth of an inch of rain.

The rain was part of a system that originated with high pressure over the Four Corners area, said Miguel Miller, a forecaster with the weather service. That pattern caused moisture to come down from the western mountains of Mexico and move clockwise into the southwestern deserts of the United States, Miller said.

The 24-hour rainfall totals as of 4 p.m. Thursday were 0.8 inches in Hemet; 0.33 inches in Twentynine Palms; 0.58 inches in Big Bear Lake; 0.43 inches in National City and Chula Vista and 0.48 inches in Imperial Beach.

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