More than 4.5 inches of rain falls in Tehachapi; Caltrans working to reopen Highway 58

Caltrans crews were working Monday to clear mud and debris from Highway 58 east of Tehachapi, and at least one eastbound lane was expected to reopen by noon to allow travel on the highway to resume.

The highway from Tehachapi to Bakersfield was reportedly open, although it still was listed as being closed on official road conditions websites.

Highway 58 was closed shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday between Sand Canyon Road and Randsburg Cutoff Road after a day of heavy rains that, hours earlier, prompted the Kern County Fire Department to issue an evacuation order in Sand Canyon because of worries the area’s only access road would become impassable because of Tropical Storm Hilary.

The first rainfall from the storm began to fall in the Tehachapi Valley on Saturday afternoon as the town was filled with thousands of visitors for the 60th annual Tehachapi Mountain Festival. Festival events scheduled for Sunday were canceled, and Saturday night’s rodeo was shut down just before it started due to safety concerns.

Rain fell steadily on Sunday but had ended by early Monday morning as local officials began to assess the impact of the storm.

According to Tom Neisler, general manager of Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District, 4.58 inches of rain was recorded at the district’s office in Brite Valley for the 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday.

“This is more than double any previous 24-hour period recorded since the district has been keeping such records,” he said. “For the month of August 2023, we have measured 5.04 inches of rain at our office. From 1995 until 2022, the previous maximum rainfall in August was 0.39 inches in 2022. The average rainfall for August during that period was 0.08 inches.”

He said the district was well-prepared for potential impacts from the tropical storm and did not need to mobilize any of its forces on standby.

“Our importation system operated at full capacity, without interruption, during the entire event. Our flood control facilities were checked numerous times, and they all accommodated the storm runoff and functioned as designed,” he said.

General Manager Chris Carlson had a positive report from Golden Hills Community Services District on Monday morning.

“Our water infrastructure weathered the storm beautifully,” he said. “Emergency backup power responded during isolated power outages, and we never experienced any lack of water throughout the entire system.”

Carlson said district crews are starting the process of cleaning up the Freedom Trail and nature park.

“We have some drainage issues we will begin to address over the new few weeks and should have them resolved before the winter storms begin,” he said.

Key Budge, spokesperson for the city of Tehachapi, said the city hadn’t identified any critical public safety items as of Monday morning.

“Our teams are currently assessing the city streets by street and are expected to have the inspection done by this afternoon,” he said.

In Bear Valley Springs, Police Chief Dan Suttles said there were no major issues from the storm.

“We had some sediment runoff in the roadways, but our roads crews were able to keep up with that,” he said.

Schools in Tehachapi Unified School District were closed Monday and Cerro Coso Community College closed campuses throughout its district, including in Tehachapi.

A Red Cross evacuation center in the gymnasium at the Tehachapi Education Center (corner of Snyder Avenue and Tehachapi Boulevard) had one overnight guest Sunday night, a traveler, and a few others earlier in the storm. On Monday morning officials were waiting for word that the evacuation had ended and planned to shut down at that time.

Freelance reporters Nick Smirnoff and Claudia Elliott contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to state at least one eastbound lane of Highway 58 was expected to reopen by noon Monday.

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