Storm Takes Part of the Roof Off Evans Brown Mortuary

A section of the roof sits in pieces in front of Evans Brown Mortuary after being blown off during Sunday's storm. Menifee 24/7 photos: Doug Spoon

A record-breaking summer storm with strong bursts of wind hit the Inland Empire hard Sunday, even blowing part of the roof off Evans Brown Mortuary in Menifee.

Most of the damage in the city appeared to include uprooted trees, fences that were blown down and minor flooding. But to the employees who were inside the mortuary at 27010 Encanto Drive alongside Interstate 215 this afternoon, the experience was somewhat more terrifying.

An entire section of roof from the back of the building blew off, sailed over the building to the west toward the freeway, took out the facility's flag pole (left) and landed on the front lawn. Some of the debris blew across Encanto, with only a chain link fence keeping it from flying onto the freeway.

No one was hurt and water damage inside the building was minimal because the section of roof that blew off was a secondary roof built over the original flat roof and angled for drainage, said Jason Vachal, a manager at the facility. Most areas of the ceiling were intact but the building was red-tagged by the Fire Department, meaning no business can be conducted there.

From ground level, not much damage could be seen on the top of the building (right), but debris was scattered across the front lawn. Vachal said there were no caskets in the building that had to be relocated and business will be conducted at one of the other Evans Brown facilities for the time being.

"I was here at the time," Vachal said. "It was blowing hard and raining so hard you could hardly see the cars in the parking lot. All of a sudden, there was a big shake and a boom. I went outside and the whole roof was gone.

"One of our counselors was outside when it happened. She said the whole roof just flew over her head. It took out the flag pole and some of the debris went against the fence. Luckily, it didn't go across the freeway and no cars driving by got hit."

An office in front of the building received water damage when a portion of the detached roof poked a hole through the ceiling. Vachal said a roofer who came out to inspect the damage estimated the gust of wind must have been near 100 mph to do that sort of damage.

Most of the storm damage in residential areas of town appeared to be in the Heritage Lake community, which lies a couple miles east of Evans Brown Mortuary. Several trees and some fences were blown down and a real estate developer's tall signs were bent over from the force of the wind.

The creek that runs through the golf course at Menifee Lakes Country Club overflowed onto part of the greens as drainage flowed under Menifee Road.

Several homes were flooded in nearby Moreno Valley and portions of Interstate 10 were shut down from Desert Center to the Arizona state line, according to abc7.com, which reported that the rainfall total of 0.36 inches on Saturday in Los Angeles broke the record for that day.  Rainfall was much worse in the Inland Empire, however, where as much as 4 inches was reported in some areas over the weekend.

Rain continued to fall Sunday night and may continue into Monday, authorities said.

The roof over a corridor at the entrance to Evans Brown Mortuary was pierced by flying lumber and metal.

A large tree was uprooted in the green belt between Discovery Bay Drive and Stowaway Drive in the Heritage Lake community.

Wildlife enjoy an extra large pond in the middle of Menifee Lakes Country Club's golf course.