Mudslides on Grapevine stranding Valley Truckers

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Many truckers are used to traveling through the Grapevine on their way to the LA area, but Thursday's weather changed their plans and gave them a major headache.

Being a trucker is hard, so when severe weather strikes, the job becomes even harder. "It's not easy, but it's part of my job, so we gotta do what we gotta do," said Fresno truck driver Luis Gomez. Luckily for him, he doesn't have to be in LA until 11:00 a.m. Friday morning. So he'll stay the night at his home in Fresno, and keep a close watch on conditions along the grapevine, where a messy mudslide closed I-5 and left vehicles and big rigs stranded Thursday night.

"The main route's closed so that puts everything off into your alternative route, which can really bottleneck things out," said truck driver Mike Schupe. Schupe is coming from Yakima, Washington, and needs to be in Long Beach by Friday morning. But when he saw the I-5 closure alert on Highway 99, he knew his plans had changed.

Schupe will detour, and at least his load is frozen, not perishable. "I'm going to fuel up full everything I can just to be on the safe side in case we end up stranded on the highway." And that's exactly why Madera trucker Luis Zaragoza is debating the drive to Buena Park. He doesn't want to get stuck in bad weather and become a traffic hazard. "Yeah you gotta look at the weather and stay on top of it. We've actually been tracking this since yesterday and kinda debating what we should do but we weren't expecting this tonight."

These truck drivers will get through it. It's all part of the job.

As of Thursday night, I-5 in the Grapevine is still closed, as well as part of Highway 58 and crews are still clearing and hauling mud away.