Hwy 5 Closed

[Jaylens Papa]

Hwy 5 closed. Any of you northern Californian's heading down or home be carefull.
This storm has messesd up the 5 around Castaic. Flooding and some road erosion.
Local news pictures shows lots of people stranded.

 

[mrsw94]

Thanks for posting. We are heading down from the Bay Area on Saturday to Legoland and then Disneyland. I'm thinking 101 might be a better choice than i-5 at this point. Hmmm...decisions, decisions.....

 

[chickapin parterre]

made the national news on the west coast feed, they had fellow break into the normal broadcast with the info, though not an el nino event, however this is what will happen when El nino arrives, which was the fourth topic of the NBC news tonight. Federal govt laid out the monster that will be 2016. Folks traveling in El Nino pattern be prepared to spend extra nights, take longer detours ( everyone will be on that detour, which in turns means extra cash. don't travel cash strapped in early 2016.

 

[Jerryp49]

http://www.sigalert.com/Map.asp?partner=sigalert&lat=34.32759&lon=-118.42324&z=2

 

[GenGen22]

They had a mud slide & card are trapped

 

[dotfurio]

They were estimating SB 5 would be open in a few hours. God I hope so... the 58 is closed, too, so that leaves us the 6-7 hour route going over to coast and down tomorrow.

 

[DLmama]

We're headed home tomorrow to San Jose, so won't be taking 5 home. Good to know, but feel sorry for the cars that ended up trapped. :-(

 

[Peace.love.mickey]

My family is caught in it. I am sooo worried. They went down the 5, missed the flood by 15 minutes. Decided to go around and missed the flood on that side. CHP said it does not look good to re-open either way. They are trying to rescue people. Thoughts and prayers! So awful!

 

[PinkBudgie]

Wow! I'm in Northern CA and didn't realize there was a storm down there. It has been sunny and hot here. All I heard on the news was the traffic report that is was closed but didn't hear about anyone trapped in it. Hopefully everyone will stay safe!

We do plan to go down in Jan right after Christmas vacation and I have been concerned about all the El Nino reports.

 

[V.I.N.C.E.N.T.]

93% chance for El Nino in Southern California this year, 75% for Northern.

 

[tiffjoy]

We have friends who left from the Bay Area yesterday. Took them 12 hours to get down to DL. They just missed the floods, but got caught in some mud and were turned around just south of Buttonwillow.

We leave this afternoon. Still thinking of taking 5 as it's mostly open now apparently with a small detour. The coast route just takes soooo long! This is just a weekend trip for us, so I'm hoping it doesn't take too long to drive.

 

[mrsw94]

We have friends who left from the Bay Area yesterday. Took them 12 hours to get down to DL. They just missed the floods, but got caught in some mud and were turned around just south of Buttonwillow.

We leave this afternoon. Still thinking of taking 5 as it's mostly open now apparently with a small detour. The coast route just takes soooo long! This is just a weekend trip for us, so I'm hoping it doesn't take too long to drive.

We leave tomorrow. Since we are going all the way down to Carlsbad, it looks like 101 is not that longer for us (as long as the traffic isn't too bad), but I think it is longer if you are only going as far as Anaheim.

Please post how your trip goes this afternoon! Good luck!!

 

[meggles]

We drive down from the Bay Area in 2 weeks. Please update when you can!

 

[Astylla]

We drive down from the Bay Area in 2 weeks. Please update when you can!

Honestly your best bet is to watch the news and Caltrans and have a backup plan to take 101 if needed.

As things change so quickly , it's important to keep up with it on the same day also.

 

[DLmama]

We left Disneyland at 2:30pm today to drive home. We knew the Grapevine had just reopened, but still figured 101 would be the way to go. Wrong! There was a suicidal man threatening to jump, so 101 was closed right before Universal Studios. We traveled 32 miles in 2 hours. We ended up cutting over to 5 through Hollywood, which added another 2 hours. A drive that should have taken us about 6 hours is now into hour 7 and we're still 3 hours from home. The good news is the Grapevine is open with little evidence of the mudslide. South was slow because there's still a lane closed, but you could get through.

 

[Metalliman98]

Man, and we thought we had it bad on the afternoon of the 9th when a fire at the top of the grapevine delayed us for about an hour! Hope everyone makes it to/from Disneyland safely. Making me question our decision to drive down at the end of December, especially with all the El Niño predictions.

 

[Astylla]

I'm really happy we booked cheap flights for our December trip now but Thanksgiving definitely has me worried. But again all we can do is be informed , make plans and give ourselves time.
I really hope everyone was safe as the photos were very scary indeed.

 

[dotfurio]

So we left Bakersfield at around 8:30 am yesterday, took the 46 to 101, hopped onto the 1 because a jumper shut down the 101, and finally arrived at Disneyland for MHP at 7:30 pm. We only made 2 - 15 minute stops along the way for bathroom breaks. It was a NIGHTMARE through the Santa Barbara area. Our map program said a 6 1/2 hour drive when we left home, but that kept getting extended as we ran into traffic.

This morning we drove home on the 5 in 2 1/2 hours. We figured we better hurry home because there's a chance of rain again tonight.

We're supposed to go again the week of Thanksgiving so I hope we have fair weather. El Nino is supposed to hit hardest in Jan/Feb. I am not driving the long way around ever again if I can avoid it! I feel terrible for people who had to catch flights, etc.

 

[missycakes99]

We left Disneyland at 2:30pm today to drive home. We knew the Grapevine had just reopened, but still figured 101 would be the way to go. Wrong! There was a suicidal man threatening to jump, so 101 was closed right before Universal Studios. We traveled 32 miles in 2 hours. We ended up cutting over to 5 through Hollywood, which added another 2 hours. A drive that should have taken us about 6 hours is now into hour 7 and we're still 3 hours from home. The good news is the Grapevine is open with little evidence of the mudslide. South was slow because there's still a lane closed, but you could get through.

Well had there not been a random suicidal man it sounds like the 101 still may have been best bet? We leave next week from Bay Area and I had no idea this was even happening. So hot and gross up here. I had heard about the mudslides, but didn't even put two and two together.

Thanks for these updates, guys! You are life savers.

 

[Malcon10t]

I drove down Thursday. When I went over the Grapevine, it was pouring. I kept moving, slowed, wipers at full speed, and hit Santa Clarita about 3pm. I was about 25 mins ahead of the slide.