Winter storms turn a Rancho Palos Verdes road into treacherous river

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - It was time to go to school. John Schoenfeld was driving his kids there when suddenly there was a flash flood. 

As they looked ahead they could see that and his kids told him, "You're not driving in this. We're going back home."

He took his kids advice saying, "Oh my God. It was a deluge, so it was just coming down major."

It came down from the sky to the hills and down onto the road. 

"It was coming out of the hills. It looked like there was a culvert that funneled it down but it was a proper flash flood situation," Schoenfeld said.

Schoenfeld saw one car after another get stuck. 

"Vehicles already well into it up to the tires and well into the doors," he adds.

All along Palos Verdes Drive, we found mud-filled roads created by the rains.

We ran into a Los Angeles County Public Works crew checking the wash. Looked OK to them but right next door, water cascaded down onto the roadway from Louay Shawesh's home. He says hard rain fell for 20 or 30 minutes.

One of those cars was Kevin Cogan's.

"I was on my way into work and I got whacked," he said. 

He went right into the flooding water. 

The way he puts it, "I didn't drive into it. It drove into me." 

It totally disabled his car. His battery died as the water rose up and into his car.

It was a tough day up and down this coastal roadway. Crews had to clean the mess on the roads to make them safe while others found out how scary flash floods can be like Kevin Cogan. 

"Well, it happens. What are you going to do? Life goes on," he said with a shrug.