The San Gabriel Mountains community of Wrightwood is expected to get a four-day reprieve from rain starting Saturday, Dec. 27, allowing residents and business owners whose properties were deluged by mud and water to assess and begin cleaning up the damage.
Some 50 homes were “severely damaged” and likely uninhabitable, while 25 suffered minor to moderate damage, Ryan Beckers, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department, said Friday. He referred anyone needing assistance to the website prepare.sbcounty.gov. They should call 911 if there is an immediate emergency, Beckers said.
Residents can also call the American Red Cross at 800-733-2767.
“I’ve lived here for 37 years,” Wrightwood resident Ashley Cron told CNN, “and I’ve never seen it like this before.”
WRIGHTWOOD/DECEMBER STORMS INCIDENT
MORNING UPDATESan Bernardino County Fire remains in unified command with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
With a break in the weather this morning, crews were strategically placed in neighborhoods that were severely impacted by the… pic.twitter.com/CQbXnviLYY— San Bernardino County Fire (@SBCOUNTYFIRE) December 25, 2025
Larissa Jackson of Piñon Hills posted a video on the fundraising website GoFundMe that showed mud in all corners of her father’s home. The marks on the walls indicated that the muck was a couple of feet deep at one point.
“In a matter of hours, floodwaters overtook his property, filling his home with mud and debris and destroying much of what he owned. Furniture, personal items, and essential household belongings were ruined,” Jackson wrote.
The rain was forecast to taper off Friday night — perhaps turning into a dusting of snow — before expected sunny skies through Tuesday. Showers are forecast for Wednesday.
It will be a much-needed break from a storm that dumped 10.33 inches of rain on Wrightwood in the past 72 hours as of midday Friday, including 8.5 inches alone on Wednesday, said Dave Munyan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s San Diego office.
WRIGHTWOOD/DECEMBER STORMS INCIDENT
EVENING UPDATESan Bernardino County Fire is devastated that many families are unable to be home together this Christmas due to the ongoing impacts of this incident. Our hearts are with everyone affected, and our crews remain committed to… pic.twitter.com/r4AjevZB1b
— San Bernardino County Fire (@SBCOUNTYFIRE) December 25, 2025
Wrightwood residents are reaching out to each other, answering pleas for assistance with offers of food, water and firewood. One resident posted a request on Facebook for someone to check on her father-in-law, whom she had lost contact with, and before long, a neighbor reported that he was safe — and handing out cookies.
“It has been quite the ordeal,” another person, Debra Gonzales, wrote on the Facebook page for Wrightwood Mountain Group. “We all have been having to endure with this massive storm that blew through, causing a devastating aftermath, and once again, our community has come together in unity to help. Sometimes life throws us curveballs, and it sucks, but I just want to say Merry Christmas, and I am so honored to call this mountain my home, still.”
Only one person — a child with minor injuries — has been hospitalized, Beckers said.
Electricity remained out in parts of the community of 5,000 people on Friday. Southern California Edison stated that it anticipates power will be restored to all customers by Tuesday. Residents without generators said they have been burning firewood. Some of them were running low Friday.
Highway 2 remained closed Friday from 3.3 miles west of Newcomb’s Ranch to the San Bernardino County line to all but people with proof of residency. A similar restriction was in place for Highway 138. An evacuation warning — meaning residents need to be prepared to leave — remained in effect Friday, said Jenny Smith, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Highway 2 is closed from 3.3 miles east of Newcomb’s Ranch to the San Bernardino County line. Updates on all state highways are available on the Caltrans website at roads.dot.ca.gov.
Teams from the county went door to door in Wrightwood on Friday to assess the damage.
“That starts the process of determining what resources are needed in the weeks and months to come,” Beckers said. “We are cautiously optimistic that because the rain is less severe and intense today, that things may hold up, but we are not letting down our vigilance. We will upgrade our staff if we need to.”
The burn scar from the Bridge fire, which burned 56,000 acres in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties in September 2024, drains into Wrightwood. The soil in the burn area, heavy with ash and lacking stabilizing vegetation, was unable to absorb enough water to prevent the debris flows, said Munyan, the meteorologist.
“Water just wants to run off it, just like feathers on a duck,” Munyan said.