Car rescued from local flash flood

BARSTOW — Three men had to be rescued from their car after they attempted to drive through a flooded section of Soap Mine Road east of Old State Highway 58 Tuesday night.

The car was unable to make the crossing. Instead the driver and passengers, whose names were not available at the scene, found themselves stuck in a flooded wash, with the water continuing to rise, at about 7:20 p.m.

“You could tell they started to panic,” said Soap Mine Road resident Linda Hodges, who was among the neighbors watching from the shore.

At the height of the flooding, there was about three feet of water flowing through the wash, rising up to the car’s windows, said Barstow Fire Protection District Capt. Mark Barnes.

The Barstow district called for aid from the San Bernardino County Fire Department, which has engines equipped to deal with water rescues. A five-person county team crossed the water and carried the occupants of the car to dry ground.

The three men were uninjured but shaken, Barnes said. By about 8:30, the water had receded enough that a neighbor was able to pull the stranded car out of the wash with a pickup truck.

Several other vehicles got stuck along less-severely flooded sections of Soap Mine Road at about the same time, but the occupants were able to get themselves out of the cars without assistance.

Barnes said he had not seen a comparable flash flood in the Barstow area in several years.

California Highway Patrol closed Soap Mine Road between Old State Highway 58 and Interstate 15 for about an hour and a half, reopening at 9 p.m.

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