Flooding of unknown origin forced the evacuation of a dozen mobile homes at a Vista trailer park Thursday, authorities said.
A resident of Green Valley Mobile Home Park on Sunset Drive reported the overflowing water coursing through the large residential complex shortly before 7:30 a.m., according to the Vista Fire Department.
Emergency crews were able to get the flooding under control within about 90 minutes by shutting off all utilities serving the site, Vista Deputy Fire Chief Craig Usher said.
The American Red Cross was called in to help 17 residents of the complex arrange for interim shelter.
“My kitty is the one that I’m most concerned about, because he’s mostly an indoor cat,” explained Green Valley resident, Rich Cruse. “My neighbor’s thankfully looking after him and got him in a separate room. So, I'm grateful, you know. It could have been worse. At least no-one’s hurt.”
It was unclear if damaged water-service equipment was the sole cause of the inundation of the trailer park near the Vista-Oceanside border, or if storm water lines or other infrastructure might have been involved as well, Usher said.
He said the cause of the problem remained under investigation at midday.
The flooding resulted in one sinkhole in the 3500 block of Sky Haven Lane in Oceanside and another beneath the residence of the woman who reported the emergency, Usher said. Crews shut down the street between Emerald Drive and Sundown Lane pending repairs.
Elsewhere, a sinkhole in Oceanside has resulted in chaos on State Route 78.
The westbound lanes from College Boulevard to El Camino Real have been closed, and traffic has been diverted while crews work around the clock to repair the damage.
“So all the storms that we had over the last two weeks, and then even before that going back as far as November, we’ve got an extraordinary amount of rain and that's caused an acceleration of the failure,” Sean Risutto from Caltrans said.
That sinkhole was caused by a broken pipe.
The affected lanes will be closed through Saturday.
Drivers are being urged to be patient and slow down for maintenance workers.
“You know we really want everyone to go home at the end of the shift and we want the driving public not to have any accidents or collisions,” Risutto said.
