Surfer Drowns as Storm Spawns Treacherous Swells

One surfer drowned and a few waterfront properties were damaged Sunday as Southern California’s first major storm of the year rumbled away to the north, leaving behind a final malevolence of high wind and powerful ocean swells.

Surf was running 12 to 20 feet in some places, and Los Angeles County lifeguard Steve Voorhees said that was simply too much for a man who set out from Hermosa Beach to try the waves with his board Sunday morning.

At 11 a.m., watchers ashore saw him catch a wave about 150 yards out, ride it for a moment, fall and surface--floating face down. Lifeguards who reached him a few minutes later found him still attached to the surfboard by an ankle tether, but efforts at resuscitation were unsuccessful and the man, later identified as Jeffrey Trakas, 27, of Redondo Beach, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Voorhees said there was no way to keep all swimmers and surfers out of the water, but all who ventured into the waves were warned that this weather was for experts only--and can be treacherous; lulls between sets of swells can make the sea appear to be calmer than it is.

“This lets some surfers make their way out there when they really don’t have the expertise to be in the water,” Voorhees said.

High surf advisories were posted Sunday for all west-facing beaches and for the entire length of Santa Monica Bay.

Some beach erosion was reported in the Venice area, where county lifeguards had worked through Saturday night and into Sunday morning stacking sandbags and moving guard towers to positions of safety behind a large protective sand berm heaped into place by bulldozers.

In Redondo Beach, waves washed away docks, ripped a fishing float from its land connection and crashed into the parking lot of the King Harbor Yacht Club, smashed windows in four west-facing rooms at the Portofino Inn, and even shifted boulders at the top of the harbor breakwater, though no boats were damaged, harbor officials said.

Authorities in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach closed those cities’ fishing piers, and Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu was closed from Las Flores Canyon Road to Topanga Canyon Boulevard--as it had been since late Friday--but beachfront homes reported no damage from the waves.

Sleet finally turned to snow and left about 8 inches of powder on the ground for cross-country skiers atop Mt. San Jacinto, and there was snow down to the 8,000 foot level at the Lake Isabella recreation area and the Tehachapi Mountains of Kern County, but at Big Bear there was only rain.

In Ventura County, mud-slick Matilija Canyon Road remained closed in the burned-off area where slides damaged two more homes during the weekend, but authorities said damage was considerably less serious than had been anticipated.

They ventured no predictions for the future, however.

National Weather Service forecasters issued a special statement Sunday, saying the surf will subside--slowly--over the next day or two, while the storm track should be mostly north of Southern California. This, they said, should give the Southland a chance to dry out a bit before Wednesday, when the next Pacific frontal system is expected to roll in with its own baggage of heavy rain, strong winds and heavy surf.

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center Sunday was 68 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 59% to 90%. The forecast called for about the same temperature today, with mostly cloudy skies giving way to partial clearing by this afternoon.

Only .01 inch of rain fell at Civic Center by late Sunday afternoon, the weather service said, bringing the total for the season to 10.93 inches--less than half an inch below the amount that had fallen by this time last year, and more than an inch above the 9.91 inches that would be statistically normal for this time of year.

Other parts of the Southland received more rainfall Sunday. By late afternoon, Mt. Wilson had added another 1.68 inches to its total, while .53 of an inch had fallen at Palomar Mountain; San Gabriel had .50 of an inch; Monrovia had .35; Mt. Laguna had .32; Pasadena had .23 and Santa Barbara had .20.

More Wild Weather

Meanwhile, Northern Californians were warned to expect at least three more days of wild and potentially deadly weather.

“We’re looking for rain--and heavy, blowing snow in the mountains--all the way through Wednesday,” said San Francisco-based weather service forecaster Ed Clark, who added that the most serious of the storms should strike on Tuesday night.

It was nothing that anyone wanted to hear. . . .

Two lives had already been lost to rafting mishaps: Kevin Dailey, 17, of Napa County, drowned Saturday when he and a friend launched their rubber raft into the swift currents of Sulphur Creek near St. Helena, and Charles Willard Hager, 24, of Concord, was missing and presumed drowned when his raft was swept over a 68-foot waterfall on the Walnut Creek channel.

Also, Santa Cruz County authorities were still searching for Amy Ratnofsky, who was reported missing after her house was demolished by a mud slide in Boulder Creek.

The Sacramento, Russian, Eel and Napa rivers were already at flood stage, while squalls swept the northern part of the state.

Residents of 80 homes on two streets near overflowing Corte Madera Creek in the Ross community of Marin County were warned to begin leaving the area--though there was no officially designated shelter prepared for them--when it started to rain again.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reported 15,000 customers still without power along a 150-mile stretch from Sonoma to Santa Cruz counties, and the state Office of Emergency Services said nearly 100 people were still waiting to return to the homes they evacuated in Petaluma and Guerneville because of high water during Friday’s storm.

Winds clocked at 100 m.p.h. at some points kept most skiers off the Sierra slopes, although up to 29 inches of new snow had fallen in three days.

And mud slides forced closure of California 1 between Panoramic Highway and Stinson Beach and Sir Francis Drake Highway between San Rafael and Point Reyes.