LOS ANGELES, CA (WCMH/AP) — After years of debilitating drought, Southern California is being pounded with a huge Pacific storm that has caused widespread damage.
The storm dropped more than eight inches of rain in one area, ravaging roads and opening sinkholes. Friday night, workers rescued a woman from a sinkhole that was caused by the storm.
Bobby Thompson said he was driving when the back tire of his vehicle became stuck over a sinkhole. Moments later, he saw another car approaching.
“I seen the other lady driving down the street, and I’m trying to wave at her and tell her to stop,” Thompson told KTLA. “She ain’t hear me. She didn’t recognize me; with the rain coming down, she didn’t see me. So, she drove right over the sinkhole and her front tire got caught and then she fell sideways.”
The woman, Stephanie Scott, was rescued from the sinkhole, but Thompson’s van was still dangling from the edge of the hole.
“My car kept turning upside down and I was just like ‘I got to stay calm,’” Scott said. “I felt the water coming up and I reached for the door and I opened the door and I climbed out. It was a total miracle. Thank you God.”
Firefighters rescued Scott and Thompson before Thompson’s van fell into the sinkhole about ten minutes later.
According to Associated Press, two people have been killed as the storm raveges Southern California. One man was electrocuted when a tree fell and hit powerlines. It happened in the same neighborhood as the sinkhole that swallowed Thompson’s and Scott’s vehicles. In Victorville, one man was found dead in a submerged vehicle where several cars were washed down a flooded street.
A Go Fund Me page has been created for Stephanie Scott.