Killer Winter Storm Moves Out of Southland

A winter storm that cudgeled the Southland with snow and wind began to squeeze itself dry on Thursday, moving slowly southeast after layering mountains and foothills with more than two feet of snow in places.

An 8-year-old girl and an 80-year-old woman died as a result of faulty heating systems, fire officials said.

The deaths bring the storm toll to eight, including three traffic accident victims and three fishing boat crew members who drowned in the Pacific.

Snowplows Worked Steadily

Rescuers slogged through snowdrifts near Tehachapi on Thursday 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 safe after holing up overnight 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.”

Although the freeway was opened to all traffic late Thursday, 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.”

Died of Smoke Inhalation

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.

2 Treated for Burns

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 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. The National Weather Service said equipment failure 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.

Dan Bowman of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, 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 southwest.

“It never did move straight east, just this slow southeast drift, which is why it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been,” he said.

Although the mountains were to receive more snow Thursday night, the storms will diminish by today he said, except for the high desert mountains and the Sierra.

‘Fairly Decent’

“The weekend doesn’t look real bad right now,” he added. “There may be a little cloudiness from time to time, but we’re not expecting any big storms to move through. It looks like things are going to stay fairly decent,” with general cloudiness and possible showers Sunday in the mountains.

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; .84 in San Juan Capistrano; .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 local shelters.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County officials distributed 700 overnight housing vouchers-- “the highest number by far that we’ve ever issued,” said spokesman Larry Johnson, who said the usual figure is 150.

County officials accommodated the homeless without opening any public buildings, but as a precautionary measure, the Board of Supervisors on Thursday adopted an urgency ordinance to “explore the feasibility” of using California National Guard armories, including 22 in Los Angeles County, for overnight shelter.

Plans for Homeless

“I think it’s important that we be ready to activate them should the need arise,” said Donna Dunn, homeless housing coordinator, who said she knew of no homeless person looking for shelter “who was turned away.”

Since Los Angeles city’s standing “severe weather” emergency policy took effect Sunday night, about 300 homeless people each night have been directed to “warming centers” or have been provided vouchers, said Sue Flores, director of Human Services for the Community Development Department.

Other effects of the storm continued to be felt Thursday.

Jim Wong, dispatcher for Los Angeles city’s Bureau of Street Maintenance, said calls about toppled trees jumped from 10 or 15 a day to 200 during the windy storm.

“There are more tree problems than street maintenance problems from this storm,” he said.

The Department of Water and Power reported power outages for about 300 to 400 customers from West Los Angeles to Highland Park by Thursday afternoon, and Southern California Edison had more than 700 customers without power in Victorville and in the San Bernardino Mountains, spokesmen said.

In Santa Barbara, the city Waterfront Department began repairs Thursday on Stearns Wharf, which was battered Wednesday by two boats that broke loose in heavy surf.

“Actually, the wharf weathered the storm fine, but the boats didn’t weather things very well,” said David Osborn, the department’s accounting coordinator.

A fishing craft and a barge slipped their moorings in wind-driven seas and banged into the pier’s causeway, knocking out 18 pilings near the shoreline.

The fishing boat “was a total loss, so our people chopped it up into bite-sized pieces and hauled it off to the dump,” Osborn said. “The barge is steel, so it’s still in one piece, up on the beach. It was a hulk of a barge to begin with, and it’s even more of a hulk now.”

For some, the waning storm ceased being a problem.

Juri Koll of Venice was one of five surfers who hit the chilly beach early Thursday, and “it wasn’t totally outrageous like it was last night,” he said. “In fact, the waves were pretty good,” but “only the real die-hards are out today.”

Mammoth-June ski resort spokeswoman Pam Murphy was delighted at the two feet of new snow. “We’re thrilled. We’re up here thinking it’s white gold.”

Up to two feet of snow was reported at resort areas in the Southern California mountains. Most ski areas were operating Thursday. All expected to be open by the weekend.

Times staff writers Ken Garcia, Scott Harris and Victor Merina contributed to this story.

Tracking the Storm

Sunday

A storm develops in Gulf of Alaska.

Monday

Initial storm weakens, but new storm develops in second low pressure center along same cold front in mid-Pacific.

Tuesday

Storm strengthens and moves rapidly toward Central California.

Wednesday

Storm is forced southeast along Califronia coast by high pressure ridges to the east and northwest. Heaviest rainfall is just east of the low. Counterclockwise winds begin to draw drier air in from Southwest over Pacific, which will weaken storm.

Thursday

Storm continues southeast and gradually weakens from influx of dry air and development of a stronger low pressure center in Gulf of Alaska that pulls atmospheric energy away.

Meteorology by Weather Data, Inc.

Two days of precipitation

LOS ANGELES BASIN:

Wed. Thu. Avalon/Catalina -- 1.93 Culver City 0.85 xx Long Beach 0.58 0.27 L.A. Civic Center 0.33 0.13 L.A. Int’l. Airport 0.66 0.19 Montebello 0.33 0.56 Santa Monica 0.67 0.15 Torrance 1.35 0.77 Westwood 0.40 0.21

VALLEYS/CANYONS:

Wed. Thu. Monrovia 0.43 0.47 Northridge 0.41 xx Pasadena 0.51 xx Riverside 0.18 0.40 San Bernardino 0.07 0.49 San Gabriel 0.28 xx Woodland Hills 0.90 0.73

ORANGE COUNTY:

Wed. Thu. El Toro 0.52 0.65 Newport Beach 0.49 0.40 S. Juan C’strano 0.52 0.84 Santa Ana 0.32 0.42

SAN DIEGO COUNTY COAST:

Wed. Thu. Chula Vista 0.50 1.25 Coronado 0.25 1.45 Del Mar 0.40 1.25 Oceanside 0.11 1.90 San Diego 0.35 1.18

SAN DIEGO INLAND VALLEYS:

Wed. Thu. Alpine 0.35 0.68 El Cajon 0.80 1.20 Escondido 0.61 0.96 Fallbrook 0.55 1.58 Poway 0.58 1.27 Ramona 0.43 1.02 Vista 0.68 0.96

SOUTHLAND MOUNTAINS:

Wed. Thu. Beaumont 0.05 0.17 Big Bear Lake 0.55 0.62 Cuyamaca Park 0.20 xx Mt. Laguna 0.10 0.90 Mt. Wilson 0.74 0.71

NORTHERN DESERTS:

Wed. Thu. Bishop Trace -- Death Valley -- 0.31 Lancaster 0.26 0.20

SOUTHERN DESERTS:

Wed. Thu. Borrego Springs -- 0.31 El Centro -- 0.14 Palm Springs Trace 0.60 Thermal -- --

STA. BARBARA-VENTURA:

Wed. Thu. Santa Barbara 0.84 0.49 Point Mugu 0.96 xx

xx indicate no data available.