The northern side of the closure was just outside San Clemente’s city limits.
The previous three freeway exits — Avenida Palizada, Avenida Pico and Avenida Vista Hermosa — all had flashing signs warning of the impending closure.
Plus, he said the freeway closure is a source of needless financial strain.
By midafternoon, it appeared motorists had gotten word of the closure and conditions around San Clemente had eased.
Administration officials said the Pendleton event was safe and that a freeway closure was not needed.
During a military event at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton on Saturday morning, a planned live-fire exercise over the freeway turned the coastal town of San Clemente into the focal point of the conflict between the Trump administration and California.
Camp Pendleton was the site of intermittent closures of a 17-mile section of Interstate 5. The northern portion of the closure was located just outside the city limits of San Clemente.
The southbound 5 came to a complete stop in the middle of Saturday morning, approximately 0.5 miles before the El Camino Real exit, which was the second-to-last exit prior to the closure.
Avenida Palizada, Avenida Pico, and Avenida Vista Hermosa were the three previous freeway exits with flashing signs alerting drivers to the upcoming closure.
Drivers who dared or were stupid enough to go past Avenida Palizada had to wait at least half an hour to get off the freeway.
Some vehicles illegally exited the empty El Camino Real onramp for approximately 15 minutes in order to break through the bottleneck on the interstate by making nearly 90-degree turns on the freeway heading south. Eventually, a member of the California Highway Patrol rode up the ramp and blocked access.
Councilmember Mark Enmeier of San Clemente City said that the freeway closure was “completely out of the blue” and that he learned about it on Saturday morning, just like many other locals, when the Orange County Sheriff’s Department posted an announcement on Instagram.
Enmeier claimed that there was absolutely no coordination with any local authorities on this matter. He added, “I was not informed of it,” if there was. “.”.
The live-ammunition event was perceived by Enmeier as a “show of force on behalf of a few individuals,” most likely planned to coincide with this day of widespread protest. In addition, he claimed that the freeway closure is causing unnecessary financial hardship.
“We as taxpayers are not only paying for these displays of force, but we are also losing money,” Enmeier stated. Since this is a major arterial road, there isn’t another route from Orange County to San Diego that doesn’t involve an hour-and-a-half detour. “”.
Owner Joey Abi-Loutfi of the SC Cafe in San Clemente stated: “I wasn’t sure what to think when I heard about the traffic from the news a day earlier. Owning a restaurant next to a freeway ramp has its trade-offs. “”.
Abi-Loutfi stated that aside from slower-than-normal business as a result of the government’s display of force by firing off weapons, he is not happy about the interstate shutdown.
He remarked with a sarcasm thicker than the chunky salsa at his restaurant, “What a great use of funding.”.
By the middle of the afternoon, it seemed that drivers had learned about the closure and that things had calmed down around San Clemente.
Inland alternatives to the 5 between Los Angeles and San Diego, the 91 and 15 freeways, were congested by that point.
Gov. The White House was chastised by Gavin Newsom for not organizing or disseminating safety information prior to Vice President JD Vance’s celebration of the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.
California claimed that the five were closed for safety.
The White House was chastised by Newsom for not coordinating or disseminating safety information prior to the celebration of the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary.
His office posted on X that driving at high speeds directly under LIVE MUNITIONS on a major freeway is unsafe. The post read, “Yet another day in Trump’s authoritarian America: the White House failing to communicate, putting the public in danger, and then attempting to blame the Governor for doing the right thing — keeping people out of harm’s way.”.
Officials from the administration stated that a freeway closure was not required and that the Pendleton event was safe.
Vance’s communications director, William Martin, said in a statement that Gavin Newsom wants people to believe that this exercise is risky.
The California Department of Transportation was contacted by the military event organizers on Friday to provide a sign along the I-5 that read, “Overhead fire in progress,” after Newsom’s office reported on Thursday that it had been assured no live fire would cross the freeway. “.”.
The state was informed earlier on Saturday that live rounds were planned to be fired over the freeway at approximately 1:30 p.m. Because of the possible safety risk and the possibility that it would divert drivers, California Highway Patrol officials recommended closing the freeway.
