Interstate 10, the main corridor between Los Angeles and Phoenix, has been closed "completely and indefinitely" after an elevated section of the freeway collapsed over the weekend due to heavy rains in the California desert.

The state's Department of Transportation could not give a timeframe for when I-10 would reopen but was diverting crews from other projects to examine the site, Terri Kasinga, the agency's spokeswoman, told the Associated Press. "They won't even be able to begin assessing the damage until Monday."

One motorist who had been heading east on the freeway was injured when the elevated section crumbled around 4:45 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Desert Sun.

The driver's truck had to be sustained with straps tied to a guardrail to keep it from being washed away in the running water. Firefighters were able to pull the motorist out of the rapidly rising water by 7 p.m., the local newspaper detailed.

The I-10 closure means that those traveling between California and Arizona will be forced to "go hundreds of miles out" and use I-8 to the south or I-40 to the north, the AP noted. Transportation officials recommend they take U.S. Highway 95 in Arizona, as well as state routes 86 and 111 in California, to access the alternative freeways.

The elevated section, which was locally known as the "Tex Wash bridge," had been built in 1967 and was listed as "functionally obsolete" in the 2014 National Bridge Inventory, a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration. Nevertheless, the structure had not been known to have structural problems that required immediate fixes, the Desert Sun noted.

Pamala Browne, a 53-year-old motorist, told the newspaper that she and her daughter were driving from Flagstaff, Arizona to Palm Desert, California, when they got stranded due to the shutdown of I-10's westbound lanes.

"Oh my God, we are so stuck out here," Browne said. "There's no end to the cars that are stuck out here."