Slick Roads Trigger Traffic Crashes : 2.53 Inches of Rain Douse L.A., the Most Since July 1

Southern California was doused Saturday by a slow-moving, 18-hour storm which dumped 2.53 inches of rain on Los Angeles Civic Center, the heaviest rainfall recorded there since the reporting period began July 1.

By mid-day, the weather front had passed over Lindbergh Field in San Diego, dropping up to an inch of precipitation on northern San Diego County and about a half inch in the south. Along the way, Santa Ana recorded 1.65 inches of rainfall, while there was only .70 of an inch at Newport Beach.

The downpour caused some flooding in the Los Angeles area where rain-slick streets and freeways were blamed for numerous traffic accidents, including a fatal crash on the Hollywood Freeway near Victory Boulevard.

The California Highway Patrol said Cayentano Mendoza, 19, of North Hollywood was driving in heavy rain Friday night when his car spun sideways and was broadsided by a van driven by Harry Jones, 33, of Van Nuys. Jones was neither injured nor cited.

The CHP also reported that two people were injured in a seven-vehicle accident on the Hollywood Freeway near Lankershim Boulevard at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. The crash, involving six cars and a tanker truck, blocked the northbound lanes of the freeway for hours. The injured were identified as Yee-Lee LoHuang, 33, and Glenn Brigante, 28.

Strong winds gusting up to 60 m.p.h. at Mojave Airport in the Antelope Valley Saturday brought a travelers’ advisory for the western regions of Kern County.

Residents of 50 to 100 homes in Placer County’s Squaw Valley, near Lake Tahoe, returned to their homes Saturday after being evacuated Friday due to “extremely dangerous” avalanche conditions.

Road crews worked through the night to clear Interstate 80, linking San Francisco and Reno, and other snow-blocked highways, and they succeeded in opening the roads by about 9 a.m. Saturday.

Donner Summit reported a 42-inch snowfall, and Blue Canyon recorded 42 inches of snow in 14 hours, a record for the Sierra community. On the east side of the mountains, Mammoth Lakes re ported three feet of fresh snow, and U.S. 395 was closed from a point three miles north of Bishop to California 203 until the roadway could be cleared.

With the storm gone, skies were mostly sunny in Southern California Saturday, and daytime high temperatures rose into the 60s. But there still was some cloudiness over the mountains and in southern coastal areas.

Clear, warmer weather is expected today.

Elsewhere in the West, the blizzard that blasted Utah and Idaho weakened as it moved eastward but the storm sent high winds whistling through the Rockies, causing one death.

The wind ripped apart a scaffolding at a church construction site in Greenwood Village, Colo., raining “bricks, concrete and iron” on workers, killing one and injuring four, the Arapahoe County sheriff’s office reported.

The storm was blamed for two traffic deaths in Oregon, one in Washington and three in California since Thursday.

In the East, record lows for the date were set at Charleston, W. Va., where the temperature dropped to zero, and at Marquette, Mich., where it was 18 below. But normally frigid Minnesota had no below-zero readings and Nebraska had its warmest temperatures of the month, with a low of 25 at Omaha.