‘It’s tragic here’: Lytle Creek residents cut off, buried in mud after storm, resident says

Even after one evacuation warning was lifted For the mountain community of Lytle Creek in San Bernardino County, some residents were left stranded after a bridge was damaged, while others struggled with mounds of mud that infiltrated homes.

“It’s tragic here,” said Travis Guenther, 54, who lives in the city’s Happy Jack neighborhood. “This is a horrible scene down here.”

Residents of the community were ordered to leave their homes on Christmas Eve as a violent storm hit the region. But for the 280 residents of Happy Jack, it was impossible to drive away, according to Guenther.

Roads on either side of a bridge that serves as the only entrance and exit to the neighborhood were washed away, he said. Officials said water from the creek destroyed the connection points for the bridge.

On Sunday, city public works constructed a temporary bridge made mostly of earth, said Capt. Shawn Millerick, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

A video he took around 1 p.m. shows bulldozers and other heavy machinery scooping up piles of sediment and moving logs. A rudimentary bridge was visible under the now blue sky.

“We tested a fire truck driving over it,” Millerick said Sunday afternoon. “Because the problem was that we need to be able to access those houses and people in an emergency.”

However, he was not sure whether residents could use it; when he left, it was still under construction.

Guenther said the structure could not be used by residents until an engineer came out to make sure it was safe. That is expected to happen on Monday.

“So we’re still stuck in our neighborhood, as far as all our vehicles can move,” he said.

Lytle Creek was among the San Bernardino County communities hit hard by the holiday storm, which brought a deluge of rain to parts of the San Gabriel Mountains. Residents of Wrightwood were also digging after the flood.

In Happy Jack the water has receded and many have run away. But Guenther said that isn’t feasible for older residents.

In addition, he estimated that about 30 homes were “red-tagged,” or deemed unsafe to live in, after debris flows choked them with silt. The power was turned off in those homes, he said.

On Sunday afternoon, Guenther was among a volunteer team that helped dig out mud from an elderly woman’s home. Members of Sunrise Church in Rialto, who had come to help, carried bucket after bucket.

During a video call, Guenther showed he could raise his hand above a ten-foot roof, indicating he was standing on about five feet of mud. Cars were buried up to the tops of their wheels in sediment.

Guenther, who cares for stray and abandoned animals as chair of a committee at the Lytle Creek Community Center, was also alert to non-humans in need of help.

Mud had smothered a koi pond on the woman’s property, likely killing the fish, but two of the four turtles were found alive. Guenther washed one of the turtles – a red-eared slider – with a water bottle, and it was recovering in a bathtub.

They also opened a closet and found five kittens, which the homeowner had never seen. Guenther thinks they took shelter there because of the heavy storm.

Other local cats may not have fared so well. Guenther said there are usually dozens of cats roaming the area, but he only saw about five during the devastation.

“I know people are focusing on people right now, as it should be,” Guenther said, “but there is a whole separate tragedy with the animals.”