Flooding closes one screen at drive-in

BARSTOW — The flooding that hit the area around Barstow Tuesday caught some residents and officials off-guard.

Shortly after Heather Shull showed up to open the Skyline Drive-In on Old State Highway 58 on Tuesday night, the flooding started. Heavy rainfall sent water flowing through the wash behind the drive-in.

For the first time in at least 10 years, according to Heather’s father, theater owner Randy Shull, the water was strong enough to breach the berm separating the wash from the theater.

It started with a small hole, but as the water rushed through, a 15-foot section of the berm collapsed entirely. Water and mud flowed across the parking area and under the door of the concession stand.

In about three minutes, the concession area was filled with two or three inches of water and mud.
“It was crazy,” Heather said.

Randy remembered thinking, “What else could go wrong?”

The business did not have flood insurance, Randy said. He had to close down one screen because of the mess, and it may be a while before he can afford to have the parking area scraped and the cracks filled with dirt so that the screen can reopen.

Still, as the Shulls worked along with theater employees Wednesday to clean up the mess in the concession stand and shovel dirt out of the walkways, Randy tried to maintain a positive attitude. He still plans to show the new Batman movie on his one remaining screen over the weekend, he said.

“We’ll survive,” he said. “We’re going to make it.”

In the same area, Soap Mine Road was closed for about an hour and a half as three feet of water flowed across the road east of Old State Highway 58, cutting off a portion of the road.

If someone had reported an emergency on the other side of wash when the water was at its height, emergency vehicles would have been unable to cross, Barstow Fire Protection District Division Chief Sal Corrao said. Instead, the fire district would have to call for a helicopter, from either the county or the California Highway Patrol.

Because flooding is such a rare occurrence, Corrao said the Barstow district is not equipped to handle it alone. The fire district does not have a flood plan, and the engines are not equipped with swift water rescue equipment.

“These are high-risk, low-frequency incidents,” he said. “That’s why we have the mutual aid system.”

In his 17-year career in Barstow, Corrao said he has only seen three cars stuck in flooded washes and one of those was in Hinkley, outside the Barstow district’s boundaries. Rather than devoting Barstow’s resources to preparing for an event that happens only once every five years, the district is prepared to call on San Bernardino County Fire Department for aid, as it did Tuesday night.

The city has its own flood control plan, which is incorporated in the county flood control district’s plan, city spokesman John Rader said. Between Sunday and Wednesday, the city public works department concentrated its cleanup efforts on West Main Street, Windy Pass, and a storm drain on East Main Street under Interstate 40 where the water level rose to about four feet.

The city is currently examining at least two major flood control projects, Rader said: a $1.5 million reconstruction of the Armory Channel, a flood control channel that runs alongside Interstate 15, to be conducted primarily with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds; and the installation of underground pipelines for flood control in two washes near Rimrock and Montara Road.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com