California Highway 1 Down Near Big Sur, Record Rainfall Over Easter Weekend in Los Angeles

Roger Morris, an assistant resident engineer with MNS Engineers, assesses a break in the southbound lane of Highway 1 at Rocky Creek Bridge in Big Sur, Calif., on April 1, 2024. (Nic Coury/AP Photo)

Easter weekend rain that hit parts of Southern California has set new daily records, eroded pieces of California Highway 1 in Northern California leaving many travelers stranded, and caused damage in some areas as crews now work to address  damage.

A portion of roadway broke off on California Highway 1 occurred Saturday in Big Sur, about 15 miles south of Monterey.

There were around 1,600 people stranded on the south side of the collapse Saturday afternoon up until about noon Sunday, a spokesperson for Caltrans told The Epoch Times.

According to a map of road closures from Caltrans, the highway is closed from 1 mile south of Limekiln Creek in Big Sur to Lime Creek Bridge due to mudslide removal, which prevented travelers from taking the highway southbound toward Santa Barbara or Los Angeles.

Since Monday, Caltrans crews have been scheduled to assist motorists in crossing the highway using the northbound lane at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily as workers began road repairs. A 500-foot concrete barrier will soon be placed down the center of the two-lane road “to define a channel for convoy vehicles” and to keep workers safe from vehicles passing by, Caltrans officials said in a Facebook post.

The Big Sur Lodge opened a conference room for motorists to use Saturday night while emergency crews determined next steps, according to a Facebook post Saturday by the County of Monterey.

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Linda Molinari, a resident of Hollister, 40 miles northeast of Monterey, told Fresno’s ABC30 that she and her boyfriend slept in their camper van after being stranded due to road closures Saturday, which, she said, led them to miss their Easter plans.

“It was really hard when the firefighters said, ‘Oh you get to sleep here tonight, sorry it’s not gonna open’ … you missed a holiday just trying to go to lunch on a random day,” she told the news station.

In Los Angeles County, a new daily rainfall record was recorded March 30 in downtown Los Angeles, at the Los Angeles International Airport, and at the Long Beach Airport, according to the National Weather Service.

In downtown, 1.73 inches broke the record set in 1946 when 1.27 inches was recorded. LAX received 1.87 inches, breaking a 1946 record of .86 inches, and the Long Beach Airport recorded 1.86 inches surpassing the record of .24 inches set in 1978 for the same day, according to the weather service. Palmdale and Lancaster also set records for the same day, recording about 1.12 inches and 1.08 inches, respectively.

Some major roof damage occurred at one home in Long Beach early Sunday, according to ABC7, after a 20-foot Eucalyptus tree was uprooted and fell on a house on E. Allington Street. There were no injuries, according to the news station.

In Fullerton, a car spun out and went off the shoulder of the road into a ditch, where it was 90 percent submerged in water, off the Orange 57 Freeway and Chapman Avenue around 10 a.m. on Saturday, according to ABC7.