Bridge collapse shuts down part of California’s I-10, Arizona stretch reopens

A stretch of Interstate 10 near the Arizona-California border reopened Monday after a bridge collapse left motorists in both states stranded overnight.

An elevated section of Interstate 10 collapsed Sunday amid heavy rains in a remote desert area of California, cutting off traffic between the state and Quartzsite, Arizona. One driver was injured after he became trapped in his truck.

The bridge, which sits about 15 feet above a normally dry wash about 50 miles west of the Arizona state line, cracked and tumbled into the flooding water below, the California Highway Patrol said.

The westbound section of the freeway remained intact, but traffic was stopped while it was inspected for safety.

I-10 West near Quartzsite, Arizona, was opened to traffic by early Monday afternoon, but officials said at least one other bridge along the freeway was showing signs of damage.

OPEN: I-10 West has reopened at Quartzsite. I-10 remains closed in both directions at Desert Center in California, milepost 105.

— Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) July 20, 2015

The freeway in that stretch had been partially reopened earlier in the day.

UPDATE: We're in the process of reopening I-10 West between Quartzsite and California. The freeway may not be fully open for another hour.

— Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) July 20, 2015

At the site of the collapse, one driver had to be rescued from a pickup truck that crashed in the collapse and was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries, the Riverside County Fire Department said.

A passenger from the truck was able to escape injured.

“The 10 is a dire situation,” California Transportation spokeswoman Terri Kasinga told the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Pamala Browne, 53, and her daughter were driving from Flagstaff, Arizona to Palm Desert, California, when they got stranded when the westbound lanes were shutdown.

“Oh my God, we are so stuck out here,” Browne told the Desert Sun newspaper.

She said “we’re talking miles” of cars waiting for a route to open.

The rains came amid a second day of showers and thunderstorms in southern and central California that were setting rainfall records in what is usually a dry month.

Rain fell Sunday afternoon in parts of Los Angeles County’s mountains, the valley north and inland urban areas to the east. The city also was expected to get a late repeat of Saturday’s scattered showers and occasional downpours as remnants of tropical storm Dolores brought warm, muggy conditions northward.

“We have a chance of some more heavy rain in LA County this evening, thunderstorms, lightning, possibly some localized street flooding,” National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Sirard said.

The showers forced the Los Angeles Angels’ first rainout in 20 years and the San Diego Padres’ first rainout since 2006.

Saturday’s rainfall broke records in at least 11 locations, including five places that had the most rain ever recorded on any day in July, Sirard said.

July is typically the driest month of the year in Southern California. Because of that, Saturday’s 0.36 inch of rain in downtown Los Angeles exceeded the 0.24 inch recorded July 14, 1886, which had been the wettest July day in nearly 130 years.

The record is especially significant, Sirard said, because downtown Los Angeles has the longest recording climate station, dating back to July 1, 1877.

Saturday’s storm brought flash floods and power outages and turned Los Angeles County’s typically packed coast into empty stretches of sand when the threat of lightning forced authorities to close 70 miles of beaches.

AJ Lester of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Lifeguard Division said he has been in touch with weather officials and was tracking rain reports.

Signs warned beachgoers to avoid storm drain flows into the ocean because of Saturday’s sometimes heavy rain. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recommends people avoid swimming within 100 yards of a storm drain for 72 hours after heavy rain.

“All storm drains flowed out yesterday, but it hasn’t rained much this year, so that doesn’t bode well for the water quality,” Lester said Sunday.

Warnings were also in place for high surf and strong rip currents on all south-facing beaches, including Venice, Santa Monica, Malibu, Zuma, Newport and Huntington, Lester said.

Meanwhile, the summer storm has helped firefighters advance on two wildfires that broke out Friday.

Muggy, moist conditions were expected to persist through Monday.