Year’s First Storm Moves East, Leaving Little Major Damage

The Southland’s first big winter storm of the year lumbered eastward Saturday, leaving in its wake more than 4 1/2 inches of rain, scattered mud slides and minor power outages, but wreaking little of the major damage that had been feared.

Still, the storm was blamed for at least two traffic fatalities in Orange County, the California Highway Patrol reported.

At 11:25 p.m. Friday, an unidentified woman was burned to death on the Garden Grove Freeway when her car was struck from behind by another car driven by Jose David Alvarez, 24, of Santa Ana, the CHP said.

Driver Trapped

His car, traveling at 50 to 55 m.p.h. in the rain, rammed into the car ahead of him, which immediately burst into flames, trapping the driver inside.

Alvarez and his three passengers suffered moderate injuries. A spokesman for the county coroner’s office said investigators would be comparing dental charts this morning in an effort to identify the dead woman.

Half an hour earlier, an El Toro man died on the Santa Margarita Parkway in the El Toro area when his Jeep hit a pool of water and spun out of control. The Jeep, which was traveling at about 55 m.p.h., was struck head-on by another car and then broadsided by a third vehicle, police said.

The Jeep’s driver, Armand Minoque, 19, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Three passengers in the Jeep suffered moderate injuries, a CHP spokeswoman said. A woman passenger in the car that struck the Jeep head-on suffered moderate injuries, as did a 16-old-year girl who was a passenger in the car that broadsided the Jeep.

Police Kept Busy

Police throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties were kept busy through Saturday morning responding to dozens of minor traffic accidents caused, for the most part, by slippery road conditions.

The situation in Buena Park was typical. Once the rain started to become heavy late Friday night, police there reported five traffic injury accidents within 20 minutes.

“It was crazy. It was like they were playing bumper cars out there, “said Sgt. Tom Lucenti.

The rains grounded police helicopters throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Costa Mesa police canceled normal flight operations shortly after midnight Saturday, when their helicopter was pelted for 15 minutes by hailstones.

“Some of the big ones were as big as Ping-Pong balls,” said Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Tim Holbrook.

Six men were rescued Saturday after heavy seas capsized their 30-foot sailboat off Venice Beach. By the time county lifeguards pushed through the 12-foot waves to the foundering vessel, it had capsized and thrown its six occupants into the water.

Sailboat Breaks Up

All six were taken to Daniel Freeman Marina Mercy Hospital, where they were treated for exposure and other injuries, lifeguards said. One man suffered a broken leg and another a broken arm, hospital officials said, adding that all were in good condition.

The sailboat broke up and debris washed ashore on Venice Beach.

In Orange County, waves breaking over the seawall and onto the pavement Friday night forced closure of eastbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach between Warner Avenue and Golden West Street. Police reopened that part of the highway at about 9 a.m. Saturday.

By about 3:30 p.m. Saturday the rain had stopped, the streets were starting to dry out and police around Orange County said the rate of fender-benders was finally slowing.

But forecasters warned that while the worst was over, at least one-half inch of additional light rain and drizzle was expected to fall on coastal areas through today, with as much as 1 1/2 inches of rain expected in the mountains.

“We’re not looking for a significant amount compared to what we’ve had, but with the ground already so soaked, where can the new rain go? It runs off,” Betty Reo, a National Weather Service weather specialist, said. “There could be some problems with slides if homeowners don’t already have adequate runoff.”

More Rain Expected

the weather service’s extended forecast calls for the chance of more rain by midweek.

Authorities remained particularly concerned about the possibility of slides in canyons and hillsides left barren by summer brush fires in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and in the Malibu area.

In Ventura County, officials said they felt fortunate that mud and rock slides in steep Matilija Canyon north of Ojai claimed only one home and a guest house. There were no reports of injury.

“We came out of it pretty well,” Lt. Paul Anderson of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said. “We didn’t quite get the rain we expected.”

Authorities on Friday had advised residents to evacuate Matilija Canyon and nearby Home Acres, both chronic mud-slide areas. Almost half of the more than 100 homes in those areas were vacated, Anderson said.

The Matilija Canyon area recorded 5.3 inches of rain Friday night and Saturday, leaving some roads closed by mud slides. At least eight other Ventura County roads were closed because of flooding, authorities said.

Closer to Los Angeles, oceanfront and cliff-side homeowners in the Malibu area spent much of Saturday filling sandbags and hosing off streams of rain-driven mud that had collected around foundations and driveways.

“Its almost therapeutic to get out here and hose the place down a bit,” said one resident, Gregory Econn, whose garage was surrounded by three inches of mud. “None of us here had any damage with four inches (of rain). Another few inches shouldn’t hurt us either. This is kind of fun, actually.”

Econn said he planned to go surfing later in the day.

Danger on the Cliffs

On nearby Big Rock Mesa, authorities expressed concern that additional rain might send about a dozen cliff-side homes plunging toward the ocean. The houses, some of them already abandoned, have been steadily sliding in that direction for years.

“Were going to be in trouble if it starts raining again,” said Officer Craig Klein of the CHP’s Malibu station.

Authorities also directed their attention to a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu between Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Las Flores Canyon Road, which was closed at about 9:30 p.m. Friday because of rock and mud slides.

Only residents escorted by CHP officers were allowed into the area Saturday so that Caltrans crews could work unabated to clear the road.

Elsewhere, high winds fanning tree branches knocked out electrical power Friday night to about 2,700 customers scattered throughout the area served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, but power had been restored to most by Saturday, spokeswoman Valerie Roberts Gray said.

Homes in the Atwater, Hollywood, Encino and Tujunga areas of Los Angeles were affected, Gray said.

“We’ve really picked up our tree-trimming programs and that seems to cut down on the number of outages,” Gray noted. “It wasn’t nearly as bad as other storms we’ve had.”

Interruption to Power

A spokesman for Southern California Edison Co. in Orange County said nine lightning strikes of power lines and transformers were recorded overnight, causing power interruptions ranging from a few minutes to eight hours to about 12,000 customers .

Between Thursday, when the rain began, and 4 p.m. Saturday, 4.55 inches of rain were recorded at the Los Angeles Civic Center. Of that amount, .76 of an inch had fallen since midnight Saturday. Most of the rain came Friday, when 2.5 inches were dumped on Los Angeles, the weather service’s Reo said.

“I’ve been here quite awhile and that was the worst I’ve ever seen it,” she said of Friday’s downpour. “It was so terrible, I couldn’t see where to go to get home.”

The storm brought the season’s total to a respectable 10.86 inches. Normal rainfall to the date is 9.81 inches. Last year, at this time, 11.29 inches had fallen.

Heavy surf advisories for Santa Monica Bay were forecast for today, with high temperatures for the Los Angeles area ranging in the mid-60s. Saturday’s high was 66.

Along the coast, business operators lamented that the torrential rains Saturday reduced customer traffic to a trickle.

Pier Deserted

On the wet, open-air mall on 3rd Street in Santa Monica, for example, only vagrants could be seen braving the elements at mid-morning. The nearby Santa Monica Pier was all but deserted.

“Normally, on a day like today, there would be a lot of people around, but of course, the rain hurts us,” said bartender Sheila Ashcraft at the Crown and Anchor English Pub, a popular drinking spot on the pier. “We depend on good weather. There are always a few brave souls who come down no matter what it’s like outside.”

Throughout California, weather was the subject of the day Saturday.

In San Bernardino County, sheriff’s dispatchers were without 911 emergency telephone circuits throughout much of the morning, Sgt. Steve Powell at the sheriff’s Big Bear area sub-station said. Pacific Bell officials had not yet determined the cause of the outage but suspected it was rain-related, Powell said.

Heavy rains were blamed for rock slides that temporarily closed California 18 between Big Bear and Snow Valley. Elsewhere in San Bernardino County, a major rock slide forced the indefinite closure of California 38 between Onyx Summit and Redlands. Powell said Caltrans demolition crews will probably have to dynamite the slide to reopen the road.

River Poses Threat

Meanwhile, authorities north of San Francisco, where more rain and gusty winds were forecast, were keeping a close eye on the normally placid Russian River. The Russian, which wends its way through Sonoma County to the ocean, was reported above flood stage but had not jumped its banks by Saturday afternoon.

Besides problems at the Russian River, small boats and city buses were used to evacuate residents of some 400 homes in the lowlands when the Petaluma River burst its banks on Friday.

Some parts of Northern California recorded up to five inches of rain and heavy snows were reported in the Sierra, forcing closure of several major highways.

There also was a report of two tornadoes touching down about three miles north of the San Joaquin Valley town of Dinuba, authorities said. There was some property damage, but no injuries were reported.

Times staff writers Dan Morain in San Francisco, Don Rosen in Malibu and Scott Harris in Los Angeles also contributed to this article.

RAIN IN THE REGION Rainfall past 24 hours (4 p.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday) 2.70 in. for Santa Ana 2.10 in. for Newport Beach 1.28 in. for El Toro Rainfall this month 4.317 in. for Santa Ana