Beaumont, RivCo Rain Totals In From Thursday's Storm

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Riverside County will dry off Friday as the first significant rainstorm of the season moves out of the region, but while mandatory evacuation orders in the Temescal Valley and Lake Elsinore were lifted, some schools remained closed.

The Lake Elsinore Unified School District decided Thursday morning to close Luiseno Elementary School, Rice Canyon Elementary School, Withrow Elementary School, Terra Cotta Middle School and Lakeside High School, all of which are situated in or near residential areas that were placed under mandatory evacuation orders during the rain storm because of flooding, mud and debris flow risks. The closures were extended into Friday at Luiseno, Rice Canyon, Terra Cotta and Withrow. Lakeside High and all other LEUSD campuses were open Friday.

Rain bands swept through Riverside County all day Thursday, causing heavy runoff in the Cleveland National Forest, on which county Emergency Management Department staff remained focused, fearing potential mud and debris flows into residential areas.

In a 24-hour period ending around 10:15 p.m. Thursday, the National Weather Service says the storm had dropped:

• 2 inches of rain in Beaumont
• 1.22 inches in Temecula
• .84 of an inch in Murrieta
• .71 of an inch in Riverside
• 1.32 inches in Corona
• 1.65 inches in Idyllwild
• 1.65 inches in the San Gorgonio Pass near Banning
• .07 of an inch in Palm Springs

There were no reports of significant damage. However, multiple roads were closed Thursday between Corona and Lake Elsinore because of pooling water. Thunderstorms pounded the Riverside metropolitan area at nightfall, causing roadway hazards and wrecks.

Mandatory evacuations had been ordered for Lake Elsinore residents along Alberhill Ranch Road and Amorose Street, residents west of Laguna Avenue, as well as residents on Glen Eden Road south of Corona, the Glen Ivy Hot Springs community, the Horsethief Canyon community and the area around McVicker Park in Lake Elsinore.

Those orders were lifted early Friday morning.

The NWS is forecasting less than one-tenth of an inch of rain in the San Gorgonio Pass near Banning and around one-tenth of an inch in the San Jacinto Mountains. Lake Elsinore, Corona, Riverside and the Coachella Valley were not expected to receive any significant rainfall Friday.

Rain fell Thursday in the burn zone created by the 13,000-acre Cranston Fire and small-scale mud and rock slides were reported, but no evacuations were ordered for the area.

High temperatures Friday are expected to reach 63 degrees in Riverside, 56 in the county mountains, 69 in the San Gorgonio Pass near Banning and 72 in the Coachella Valley.

A cold trough of low pressure will sweep into the region Saturday afternoon and could bring enough moisture to drop light rainfall through Sunday morning, NWS forecasters said.

— By City News Service / Image via Riverside County Fire Department