By JOHN ROGERS
Associated Press Writer
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. – Hundreds of evacuees were allowed Friday to return to their foothill homes as Southern California’s week of lightning, vicious downpours and tornadoes dissipated into occasional thunderstorms.
As rainfall drenched the region earlier in the week, the homes had faced possible debris flows from a 250-square-mile area of the San Gabriel Mountains, northeast of Los Angeles, burned bare last summer by wildfire.
However, mandatory evacuation orders were lifted for all but a handful of streets after public works experts determined that the ground was safe – for now.