Rain Blamed for 1 Death in County : .25 of an Inch Tops in County

The heaviest rainfall of the season fell on Southern California Thursday, triggering dozens of traffic accidents, including one on Carbon Canyon Road in Brea that killed a Chino Hills woman.

The rain slowed freeway commuters in all directions and raised the threat of landslides in areas denuded by summer fires.

Joe Hunt of Environmental Resources weather forecasting in Anaheim said .25 of an inch of rain was recorded in Cypress, the heaviest reading in Orange County. Temperatures dropped to the mid-60s and below, he said.

.43 of an Inch in L.A.

The National Weather Service said that .43 of an inch of rain fell at the Los Angeles Civic Center from 1 to 3 p.m., bringing the total for the season to .52. Weather statisticians said this is .11 of an inch above normal for this time in the season and considerably below the 2.68 inches that had fallen by this time last year.

The weather service said it was the most rain in downtown Los Angeles since Jan. 4, when more than an inch was reported in a single day.

To the south, the weather service said, .95 of an inch of rain had fallen at Palomar Mountain in San Diego County by 2 p.m. The rain, in an area burned by a brush fire, triggered several mud slides that knocked out power and caused road closures.

Weather service spokesman Bob Grebe said the rain was expected to taper off from the coast to the mountains Thursday evening.

“But computer forecast maps show a large trough of low pressure persisting off the California coast for the next several days,” he said, “with the next organized storm possible about Sunday.”

He said the air over California will remain moist and unstable for the next two days, with a continued chance of showers, especially in afternoon and evening hours near the mountains.

A California Highway Patrol officer said the number of accidents reported on Los Angeles County freeways during the first two hours of the storm was “about 200% of normal,” but no deaths or serious injuries appeared to have resulted.

Orange County police agencies also reported a rash of rain-related accidents, including the one on Carbon Canyon Road that resulted in the death of Ann Lee Stella, 60, of Chino Hills. Police said that her car drifted over the center line for unknown reasons and collided with a pickup truck.

Also injured in the 3 p.m. crash near Lavida Hot Springs in Brea were the driver of the pickup, Francis Herbert Diaz, 35, of Inglewood, and his passenger, Hieu Nguyen, 27, of Norwalk. Diaz was airlifted to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana for treatment of facial, chest and leg injuries. Nguyen was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange for treatment of minor facial injuries.

The accident tied up traffic in Carbon Canyon for about four hours, Brea police said.

In another Orange County accident, a truck overturned on the Costa Mesa Freeway near 17th Street in Santa Ana, spilling about 200 gallons of diesel fuel on the roadway. The accident caused several hours of slowing on the freeway, but no serious injuries were reported.

In the San Fernando Valley, the northbound Golden State Freeway was flooded waist deep at Lankershim Boulevard, tying up four of the freeway’s five northbound lanes and forcing motorists to squeeze through in single file.

Some minor flooding was also reported along Pacific Coast Highway. There was minor flooding at some intersections in Orange County.

A spokeswoman for Los Angeles International Airport said operations there were slowed at about 1:15 p.m., when heavy rainfall obscured visibility. But most flights arrived and departed smoothly through the rest of the afternoon.

A spokesman for Southern California Edison Co. said he had heard of no major problems because of the storm. But Marc Haefele of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said that utility was having widespread problems in its electric distribution system.

“We have numerous outages throughout the DWP areas,” Haefele said, explaining that seven main power lines were out in the San Fernando Valley, primarily because of lightning, causing a blackout for 6,000 customers.

Problems Downtown

In addition, he said, problems with a feeder line at 7th and Los Angeles streets caused about 1,000 other customers to lose power.

At 1:45 p.m., the National Weather Service issued an urban and small-stream flood statement, saying that rainfall amounts of half an inch to an inch were reported in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

“Many roadways in these areas have standing water on them, and some underpasses were reported flooded but still passable,” the statement said.

Spokesmen for the U.S. Forest Service and state Department of Forestry said no major slides had been reported because of the storm, but a watch was being kept in areas where natural ground cover was destroyed by fire.

High temperature in downtown Los Angeles Thursday reached 69 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 71% to 97%.

The weather service said it should be about the same today, with a minor warming trend continuing--along with the possibility of rain--through the beginning of next week.

Beaches were expected to remain cloudy through the weekend, with a chance of showers persisting into next week and surf running from one to three feet in most places.

The weather service said temperatures should reach the mid-70s today and Saturday, with an afternoon sea breeze rising to 16 m.p.h. The ocean temperature will be about 10 degrees cooler than the air.

A small-craft advisory was in effect in outer coastal waters Thursday afternoon, warning of 30-knot, east-to-southeast winds and five-foot seas from Point Conception to Santa Rosa Island. But forecasters said this should subside to 20 knots today.

Inner coastal waters were calmer, with two-foot seas and southerly winds to 16 knots, expected to die overnight and rise southwest in the 15-to-20-knot range today.

Mountain visitors were told to expect dense local fog overnight through the weekend, with continued showers and locally heavy rain, blown by winds rising to 30 m.p.h. at times. Temperatures were expected to be in the mid-40s to mid-60s in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains, with the snow level pegged at 9,000 feet throughout the Sierra.

Times staff writer Dianne Klein contributed to this story.