Rainfall Sets Record, Helps Halt Palomar Fire

The remnants of Tropical Storm Ramon continued to pour rain on San Diego County Monday night and early this morning, but the last of the storm should be gone by late today as Southern California’s weather resumes its normal, drier pattern.

The storm’s most serious effects were on area roads, where it was blamed for three fatal traffic accidents.

The latest occurred late Monday on Elkelton Boulevard in Spring Valley, where at least one person was killed and two were injured and taken to regional trauma centers.

Earlier Monday afternoon a fatal accident took place on El Camino Real in Carlsbad, when a northbound car on El Camino Real near The Country Store crossed the center divider and smashed head-on into a second vehicle, Carlsbad police said. The driver of the first car died at the scene and was identified by police as Antonio Balsamo, 45, of El Cajon.

Balsamo’s three passengers and the driver and passenger in the second car were taken by Life Flight helicopters to area hospitals. All were reported in stable condition late Monday.

On Sunday, Raymond Charles Houston, 22, of San Diego, was killed when he lost control of his car and it crashed on Mission Gorge Road, San Diego police said.

Rain fell sporadically throughout Monday, with the heaviest falls generally in inland valley and mountain areas. The official rainfall at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field totaled 0.51 of an inch, setting a record for rainfall on Oct. 11. The previous record was 0.17 of an inch in 1957, National Weather Service forecaster Richard Stitt said.

Fallbrook recorded 2.08 inches of rain and Palomar Mountain more than an inch and a half over the two-day period, helping to further contain the 16,000-acre fire there that has burned for more than a week.

California Department of Forestry officials said the fire was fully contained and they continued to send teams of firefighters home, leaving about 300 people to monitor the fire to make certain that no hot spots break out. Minor landslides were taking place in burned areas, but both major roads through the area, California 76 and County S-6, were open, officials said.

Some roads in low-lying areas of San Diego County that had been closed Sunday and reopened Monday were again closed early today because of new flooding.

Stitt said that moisture from Ramon was moving east over Arizona and New Mexico and that most of the county will be partly cloudy by late today. He said temperatures will remain in the low 70s for most of the week, with mostly clear days after late-night and early-morning low clouds and fog.