More Of Dean's Handiwork

Rains in the desert:

Drivers were stranded in their cars, beaches were evacuated and thousands lost power Sunday as a surprise summer thunderstorm soaked Southern California.

As much as three inches of rain fell on the deserts of southwest San Diego county in the afternoon. That prompted the California Highway Patrol to close the Borrego Salton Seaway in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, where CHP dispatchers said they received reports of an unknown number of motorists stranded in flooded washes alongside the road.

Nearly two inches of rain fell on Escondido in a span of about an hour earlier Sunday, and lightning-struck power lines left 14,300 customers without power for about five hours, said Rachel Laing, spokeswoman for San Diego Gas & Electric.

"The problem was lightning was damaging lines," Laing said. "There were lines hit, and there were transformer problems."

..."We have a whole line of storms between Carlsbad and Cuyamaca, and reaching up to Palomar Mountain that are morphing into each other," Miguel Miller of the National Weather Service said.