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00:00 While Tropical Storm Hillary made
00:01 its way through Kern County over
00:03 the weekend in Ridgecrest,
00:04 they saw several inches of rain which
00:07 left flooding throughout communities.
00:08 But for residents here in Ridgecrest,
00:10 they're looking to make the
00:12 most of the situation.
00:14 Oh, let's see back in 1984.
00:22 We had pretty good floods during that
00:24 time and and Al Bucciarelli lived
00:26 through the Great Flood of 1984 in
00:28 Ridgecrest and they say it didn't hold
00:30 a candle to what they experienced this
00:33 time. Lot of bad flood, but this one
00:35 was epic Ridgecrest getting over
00:36 5 inches of rain Sunday.
00:38 Double what they saw in 1984.
00:40 We were trying to dry everything out.
00:42 We got dry night drops that came in.
00:44 Checks that were deposited.
00:46 I mean we so we probably had about
00:48 a quarter inch of you know water
00:50 that was standing across all the
00:52 floor in here when we first came
00:55 in this morning. So Eric Bruin
00:57 dealing with the aftermath of
00:58 Tropical Storm Hillary,
00:59 not only as the mayor,
01:01 but as a business owner.
01:04 The city seeing several road
01:06 closures due to flooding Ridgecrest
01:07 Police reporting West Bowman Ave
01:09 from South China Lake Blvd through
01:11 to South Norma St is closed as well
01:14 as North Gold Canyon St North of
01:16 Pierce School, the local quarry
01:18 overflowing due to the excessive
01:19 rain flooding from the quarry
01:21 leaking into nearby neighborhoods,
01:22 flooding just like this one behind me.
01:25 I spoke to one of the residents here who,
01:27 while she didn't want to go on camera,
01:30 did tell us that due to the flooding
01:32 they've been left without gas and
01:34 hot water PG&E responding quickly
01:35 to assist those in need.
01:38 And Bruin saying the resilience in
01:39 the community can be seen throughout
01:41 Ridgecrest. They all did a great job
01:43 getting off the streets,
01:45 helping their neighbors,
01:45 filling sandbags.
01:46 There's just there's there's a there's
01:48 a never ending story about everything
01:50 that was done right. Any schools
01:52 in Ridgecrest expecting to begin
01:53 Monday were closed, some experiencing
01:55 water damage to their facilities.
02:00 But students took advantage
02:01 of the opportunity.
02:02 Did you guys expect the first day of
02:04 school would get canceled because
02:06 of a tropical storm? No, definitely
02:08 not in the middle of the desert,
02:10 so no, they're obviously taking
02:11 advantage of it because rich guys
02:13 didn't have like a pool or anything
02:15 like water park. So yeah,
02:16 it's really nice place to go
02:18 rafting or whatever. And while
02:19 there's a lot of work to be done to
02:22 get the school setting, residents
02:23 will continue to remain positive.
02:25 Yeah, I think after the earthquake
02:27 this put everybody in a frame
02:29 of mind to help each other.
02:30 And get over things and make the
02:35 best of what there is.
02:37 Again, the city of Ridgecrest has
02:41 prepared and they do have resources
02:43 available to assist anyone who may
02:44 have been impacted by Tropical Storm
02:46 Hillary in Ridgecrest. I'm Veronica
02:48 Morley, 23 ABC News connecting you.