Dozens of dogs, people rescued from flooding Santa Ana river bottom
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - As another atmospheric river storm bears down on Southern California, and is expected to continue for the next several days, rescue crews are working around th clock to keep people away from flooding rivers across the region.
While two river searches in Los Angeles County turned up nothing, crews along the Santa Ana River in Riverside were busy for hours Monday morning, pulling more than two dozen people and dogs from the river bottom.
According to Riverside Fire Department Batallion Chief Brain Guzzetta, crews rescued 10 people and 18 dogs from encampments along the river.
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"We continue to have resources up and down the river," Guzzetta said. "We're in cooperation with the Riverside County Fire Department and the city, collaboratively, trying to get as many people out of the river bottom and as many rescues as we can."
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Video from the scene showed rescue crews being dropped with a crane from an overpass to the encampments below. People and dogs were lifted to the overpass and brought to paramedics ready on the scene.
Crews brought the dogs up in bags, and pulled the wet animals out and into nearby ambulances.
"One clear message is that we need to be out of the river bottom at this time," Guzzetta said. "The rain is going to continue for not only today but in the days to come, and we need to get out of the river bottom, so that we don't have to have these individuals need to be rescued."