The mud clung to decimated houses like a memory, thick and unyielding, refusing to let the Forrest Falls resident Olin Richey and several of his neighbors forget the afternoon that the sky opened and their world changed.

In the desolation that followed a torrential rain on Thursday, Sept. 18, causing massive flooding in several southern California communities including Oak Glen, Potato Canyon and Forest Falls , the scattered chapters of lives paused, plans were undone, and the slow, communal work of recovery commenced.

The storm had brought the worst heartache in Barstow on Friday: A 2-year-old boy was found dead some 20 hours after the toddler became separated from his father in a wash after their car was swept into a channel.

On Saturday, emergency crews continued to assess the dama

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