Hang On to Your Umbrella; New Storm’s on the Way

Don’t misplace those umbrellas. Another storm, albeit lacking the ferocity of Friday evening’s gusty rush-hour deluge, could be arriving in Southern California late tonight or Monday, forecasters said.

There is a 20% chance that a second Pacific storm front will visit the Los Angeles Basin, predicted Dan Bowman, a meteorologist at WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

But he added, “It won’t pack as much punch as the one that moved through Friday night.”

Friday’s storm snarled traffic, triggered power outages at tens of thousands of homes and businesses, chased homeless people off Venice Beach and destroyed mobile homes.

There were at least 200 rain-related accidents on Los Angeles County roads, and traffic inched along the freeways two or three times slower than usual, the California Highway Patrol reported. Many roads were flooded, including the Harbor Freeway at Imperial Highway, which was under water for almost three hours.

In Santa Monica, police took 16 drenched homeless people to a Holiday Inn after winds scattered their tents and belongings across the sand. The Red Cross provided shelter for 20 residents of a flooded apartment building in Los Angeles.

The Red Cross also was called to Westminster in Orange County where eight mobile homes were destroyed and 32 others were damaged by winds that scattered debris in power lines and trees a quarter of a mile away.

“The places I saw looked like they could have been hit by a tornado,” said Sgt. Philip Martinez of the Westminster Police Department.

The Los Angeles Civic Center was one of the areas doused the hardest with 1.04 inches of rain, while most other spots in the region received between one-half and three-quarters of an inch.

Los Angeles has received 4.64 inches of precipitation so far this year, compared to 3.65 inches at this time last year. The normal amount of precipitation during this period is 2.75 inches.

Saturday’s high temperature was 64 after an overnight low of 52. Relative humidity ranged from 96% to 63%. Sunday should be partly cloudy with temperatures reaching the upper 60s. Monday temperatures will dip to the low 60s.

On Saturday, the storm’s legacy was cloudy weather. But it was a boon for surfers and area ski resorts, which reported receiving two to four inches of snow.

“The surf is really good,” said Steve Voorhees, a county lifeguard captain in Hermosa Beach. “The surfers, out there in their wet suits, are having a great time.”

A county Department of Health Services official reported that area beaches were apparently spared any sewage spills from Los Angeles’ overtaxed sewer system. But Toby Staheli, a county spokeswoman, cautioned that swimmers and surfers might be taking a risk by jumping in the ocean after the rainstorm because storm runoff carries pollutants.

THE RAIN 24-hour total . . . 1.04 in. Monthly total . . . 1.04 in. Total for season . . . 4.64 in. Last season to date . . . 3.65 in. Normal season to date . . . 2.75 in.