Storm Puffs Itself Out but Leaves 9 Dead

A winter storm that battered Orange County with rain, wind and snow began to squeeze itself dry Thursday, but not before delivering a parting shot of drizzles and icy temperatures that kept a National Guard armory open to shelter the homeless for a second night.

Forecasters said clear skies and sunshine should return today and remain through most of the weekend, although chilly nights may linger a bit longer.

At least nine deaths around Southern California, including that of an Orange County woman, have been blamed on the two-day arctic blast that dumped up to nine inches of snow and ice on the Ortega Highway linking Riverside County with south Orange County.

Elsewhere, the storm was blamed for the deaths of an 8-year-old San Diego County girl and an 80-year-old Wilmington woman, who died as a result of faulty heating systems, and three traffic accident victims and three fishing boat crew members who drowned in the Pacific.

Orange County officials at the armory in Santa Ana said Thursday that the prospect of continued cold nights may prompt them to keep its doors open through the remainder of the week.

About 16,000 customers, many of them in the north county communities of Fullerton, Yorba Linda and Brea, were without power for a time Wednesday night. Winds gusting up to 35 m.p.h. hurled branches and debris into power lines, but by daybreak Thursday, power had been restored to all but a handful of residents, officials said.

The weeklong siege of unseasonable cold, coupled with the soaking rains, pushed gas and electric consumption to record levels Thursday, utility companies reported. Rich Puz, a Southern California Gas Co. spokesman, said, “An awful lot of furnaces have been working overtime this week.”

Higher Utility Bills

And customers were warned to expect higher utility bills. Puz estimated that residential customers may pay, on the average, 15% or more on their next gas bill. But for most people, he said, “it’s well worth it!”

This week’s storm boosted Santa Ana’s rainfall totals for the season to 4.92 inches--nearly two inches above normal for this time of year. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the storm had dumped 0.87 of an inch of rain on the county seat since the Pacific front pushed ashore Wednesday morning.

The heaviest rain fell in north Orange County, where nearly 1.35 inches was recorded in Yorba Linda. Elsewhere, El Toro received 1.10 inches; San Juan Capistrano had 0.84 of an inch; Corona del Mar reported 0.98 of an inch and Huntington Beach had 0.59 of an inch.

Intermittent drizzles on Thursday again made driving in the county difficult, with the predictable rash of accidents. Authorities blamed foul weather for the death of a 31-year-old woman from Orange, whose car skidded off a Lake Forest road.

Lost Control of Car

Nancy Anne Dodge was killed when she lost control of her car westbound on Lake Forest Drive about 5 p.m. Wednesday. The vehicle jumped the center divider and struck a van traveling eastbound near Overlake Drive, California Highway Patrol spokesman Ken Daily said. Dodge was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the van, Susan Ann Brewer, 35, of El Toro, suffered a broken leg and was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center.

Ortega Highway, the only link between southern Orange County and Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, was reopened late Wednesday night after snow and ice near the road’s summit had forced its closure for more than 12 hours. Caltrans crews, using bulldozers in 34-degree temperatures, cleared the mountain roadway, which had been covered at one point by nine inches of snow and ice.

The CHP reported that hundreds of snow-seekers flocked to the area in the Santa Ana Mountains.

Also reopened Thursday were Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. Both amusement parks closed Wednesday because of the foul weather conditions.

Wednesday’s closure of Disneyland was only the third in 25 years, and the first since March, 1983, when a powerful storm that caused more than $100 million in damage countywide shut down the Anaheim amusement park.

More Outdoor Attractions

In Buena Park, Knott’s Berry Farm closed for the first time since 1985. Closures of that park have been more frequent because Knott’s has more outdoor attractions that are difficult to operate under stormy conditions.

Along the coast, large surf was still battering beaches Thursday, but the high winds which tore some boats from moorings in Newport Harbor had died down.

“It’s a typical day after a big storm,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Capt. Harry Gage, who is in charge of the department’s Harbor Patrol office in Newport Beach. “We’ve spent the day picking branches and other debris out of the water . . . but it’s a lot calmer. . . . Now, all we need is a little sunshine.”

And that should be on the way. There is a slight chance of a shower or two early today, but skies should be clear by early afternoon, said meteorologist Dan Bowman of WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. Daytime highs will warm to the upper 50s to low 60s. By Saturday, Bowman said, highs should push into the mid-60s.

The warming trend, Bowman said, is due to a ridge of strong high pressure building off the coast that should keep another storm spinning out of the Gulf of Alaska from delivering much more than a chance of a sprinkle to the county by late Sunday night.

Nights still will be cloudy, with the mercury dipping into the low 40s and possibly upper 30s in some places.

Open Through Sunday?

As a result, county spokeswoman Denise Reed said that the National Guard armory in Santa Ana may remain open through Sunday night for the homeless. About 30 people reportedly spent Wednesday night there, and at least that many were expected Thursday night as other county shelters were again filled to overflowing, and were turning away people trying to escape the cold.

The use of the armory, which can provide food and shelter for 100 people, followed Gov. George Deukmejian’s lead Tuesday in offering public buildings as temporary shelter if temperatures dropped below 40 degrees.

Elsewhere in the Southland on Thursday, rescuers slogged through snowdrifts near Tehachapi after about 60 people were stranded in their cars for up to six hours. And an elderly Gorman man whose car stalled on the way to his mailbox was reported safe after spending the night in a garage.

Truckers and other drivers who had been sidetracked Wednesday on Interstate 5 by snow and screeching winds got back on the road Thursday. The California Highway Patrol began escorting the first convoys of vehicles over Tejon Pass about 2:15 p.m., as snowplows worked steadily to keep the roadway clear.

“It’s starting to come down again real good, but they’ve got a good layer of sand down and the cars are coming through OK,” CHP Officer Jerry Berger said. “It’s a piece of cake if you like snow.”

The CHP was recommending that northbound motorists take the Ventura Freeway past Santa Maria, then get on California 166 east to California 99, just south of Bakersfield.

“They will probably get there quicker if they go through this way,” CHP Officer Charlotte Foley said. “There is a really, really long delay” in the escort service.

By late afternoon, all lanes were open over the Cajon Pass on Interstate 15, north of San Bernardino, after a brief closure, and no chains were required.

“But it’s still snowing up there,” CHP Officer Kevin Haney said. “And whether all that will change is up to Mother Nature.”

In addition to six people who died from the storm’s first punch, an 80-year-old Wilmington woman died of smoke inhalation in a fire started by a faulty floor heater, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Jim Williamson, who noted that a smoke detector would have alerted the woman, whose body was found in the hallway of her home early Thursday morning.

An 8-year-old Imperial Beach girl, Roseanne Keefe, died and her brother and parents were rendered unconscious by what authorities say was carbon monoxide.

Deputy San Diego County Coroner Jack Larkie said the family had turned on the gas wall heater for the first time this winter, and a rag found stuffed into the heater’s vent had apparently allowed carbon monoxide gas to build up.

In Cummings Valley, near Tehachapi, “white-out” conditions and three feet of snow trapped 30 or 40 cars backed up single-file along a highway leading into the Stallion Springs development, Kern County search and rescue Lt. Carl Sparks said.

It took a dozen rescuers more than five hours to shuttle out the 60 people, eight or nine at a time, in the heated cab of a “snow weasel,” said Sparks, who noted that the last rescue came shortly after 3 a.m. Thursday.

“It was only a few miles from the gate (of the community), but you’d be a Popsicle by the time you got there,” Kern County sheriff’s spokesman Richard Dixon said.

“They all had their heaters going,” added Sparks, and they “didn’t panic, which was the main thing.”

Some who still could not get home spent the night at the homes of the search and rescue volunteers, Sparks said.

It was still snowing there Thursday, he said. “I’d say within a week, they’d be able to get back in and get their cars.”

Two men were reported in good condition Thursday after suffering burns when a Good Samaritan effort by Kern County sheriff’s deputies went awry.

When high winds and heavy snow blocked the Grapevine on Wednesday afternoon, Dixon said, the search and rescue team led stranded motorists to shelter at a Denny’s Restaurant at the base of the grade.

“The power was out, so they brought in portable propane heaters,” Dixon said. “Apparently, while they were starting up the heaters, some of the gas started leaking.”

Deputies quickly escorted motorists outside, but one member of the team, Brian Dials, 30, was still looking for stragglers when an explosion tore through the restaurant.

Dixon said the blast hurled Dials from the building. Moments later, firefighters found trucker James Douglas Gillihan, 35, hiding in a bathroom attempting to evade the flames that largely destroyed the restaurant, causing about $250,000 damage.

Gillihan was hospitalized at Kern County Medical Center in Bakersfield with respiratory burns. Dials was treated at another Bakersfield hospital for second-degree burns on the face and hands before being transferred to the burn ward at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital.

Ernest Mock, 72, of Gorman was reported in good condition Thursday after spending 18 hours away from home. His car bogged down in snow on the way to his rural mailbox Wednesday afternoon, and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department rescuers said they found him Thursday morning, huddled in the garage of a newly built but unoccupied house.

The lingering snow is a visual reminder of the two-day storm that left nearly half an inch of rain at the Los Angeles Civic Center, bringing the season’s total to an estimated 5.21 inches. National Weather Service officials said that equipment failures prohibited them from providing exact figures.

High of 55

The Civic Center high reached 55 degrees Thursday after an overnight low of 48. Normal high for the date is 68, the service said.

Relative humidity data also was not available.

Bowman of WeatherData Inc. said that cold, dry offshore air was pulled into the storm, weakening its punch and helping to move it southeast over Baja California and the desert.

The southeast-moving storm did drop record rain--1.53 inches--at Lindbergh Field in San Diego, he said.

Other rainfall figures Thursday included 1.93 inches in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island; .77 in Torrance; .60 in Palm Springs; .73 in Woodland Hills; .49 in San Bernardino; .21 in Westwood and .15 in Santa Monica.

Continued cold kept the homeless lining up as early as 8 a.m. for space in full-to-capacity Los Angeles shelters.

HOW WET IS IT?

Rainfall this Last year Average by Station season to date* at this date this date Santa Ana 4.92 inches** 2.58 inches 3.03 inches Villa Park 5.65 inches** 3.65 inches 3.65 inches Costa Mesa 4.86 inches** 2.55 inches 2.84 inches

*Reporting period runs July 1, 1987 to June 30, 1988.

**As of 8 a.m. on Dec. 17.

Source: Orange County Flood Control District

Source: Orange County Department of Education