Travellers stranded by Highway collapse begin to leave Big Sur

Officials in California on Sunday slowly began guiding drivers past a collapsed section of scenic Highway 1 in the Big Sur area, one day after the damage left about 2,000 motorists stranded overnight.

Officials with the California Department of Transportation urged the public Sunday to avoid that section of the southbound highway in the Central Coast, and Monterey County issued a disaster declaration.

The highway remains closed to the public while crews work on the affected areas, where large chunks of the road fell into the ocean. The agency, known as Caltrans, did not give an estimate of when the highway would fully reopen.

Highway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, features stretches of rocky cliffs, lush mountains, panoramic beaches and coastal redwood forests.

Officials did not say what led to the collapse, but torrential rain Saturday battered the area near Rocky Creek Bridge, the site of the damage, which is about 17 miles south of Monterey.

There were no reported injuries from the collapse. Many of those stranded Saturday were visitors who were driving through the area over the Easter holiday and had to sleep in temporary shelters, said Nicholas Pasculli, a spokesperson for Monterey County. Others stayed in local hotels, bed-and-breakfasts and campgrounds, and some slept in their cars, he added.

On Sunday, uniformed officials were guiding some motorists around the damaged road in organized convoys. As cars moved past the damaged area, drivers could see that a chunk of the highway had entirely disappeared, along with the rock barrier separating the highway from the cliff’s edge.

Another convoy was scheduled for Monday morning in case the crews were not able to reach everyone by Sunday night, Pasculli said.

“We’re hoping we can get all the visitors out today — that’s our hope, that’s our goal,” he said. “Suffice it to say, it’s a holiday weekend.”

An unseasonably cold and vigorous storm system cut through the southwestern Pacific Coast over the weekend, bringing rain, flash flooding and snow to parts of California and elsewhere.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.