S.D. Lashed by 65 M.P.H. Storm Winds

A large winter storm buffeted San Diego with heavy rains, hail and gale force winds Sunday, causing numerous power outages, traffic accidents and minor property damage throughout the county but apparently no major injuries.

The county was lashed by more than an inch of rain and wind gusts of up to 65 m.p.h. uprooted trees, blew down traffic lights and knocked out power lines. Law enforcement officers and emergency road and utility crews spent most of Sunday responding to dozens of weather-related problems as San Diegans braced for a continuation of the inclement conditions today.

In Los Angeles County, three people died when an avalanche buried their car in the Angeles National Forest, and four more died when a plane crashed into a mountain in Newhall during a driving rainstorm.

Mud Slides in L.A.

The storm also set off mud slides in the Los Angeles area and produced conditions that led to a dramatic rescue of two Huntington Beach youngsters who were trapped by rising waters on a sand bar. Heavy surf and high tides damaged seaside structures and piers.

In San Diego, an estimated 10,000 customers were affected by power outages Sunday, with many of the problems caused by trees blown into power lines and the flooding of underground circuits, according to San Diego Gas & Electric spokesman Dave Smith.

“I’m one of them--I’m standing here in the dark right now,” Smith said late Sunday night from his Clairemont home. “They (the outages) started about 6 a.m. and the numbers continued to increase all day long. Some people have been without power for many, many hours.”

Rocky’s Balboa, a popular Pacific Beach sports bar, had the misfortune to lose its electricity in the middle of the American Football Conference championship game between the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns.

“I watched about 350 people walk out the door,” said bar owner Peter Weinberger. “There’s about 20 or 30 of us left, huddled in the dark listening to the end of the game on a portable radio.”

The rain and winds produced numerous fender benders on San Diego freeways and streets Sunday, including a 10-car accident on Interstate 805 north of Adams Avenue in Normal Heights. But no serious injuries were reported in that accident or in any of the dozens of others that occurred Sunday.

Golf Tournament Canceled

The storm also forced the final round of the MONY Tournament of Champions golf match at La Costa to be canceled and caused several boats in San Diego harbor to break loose from their moorings.

National Weather Service forecaster Frank Perdue said that Sunday’s heavy rains and strong winds were caused by an intense low-pressure system that is expected to pass through San Diego by late today. Occasional heavy rains are forecast for today, while the high winds experienced throughout much of the county Sunday are expected to dissipate by late afternoon.

At Lindbergh Field, 0.71 of an inch of rain had fallen by 8 p.m. Sunday, and another half inch was expected to fall by this morning. The rainfall was even heavier elsewhere in the county, totaling 1.3 inches in Julian (which also received more than 6 inches of snow) and Mt. Laguna, and 1.1 inches in Alpine, Fallbrook and El Cajon by early Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service.

A coastal flood watch has been issued for all San Diego County beaches, with high tides combining with unusually big surf to produce hazardous conditions. Tides will hit the 7.5-foot high mark at 8:01 a.m. today, while the surf is expected to reach 8 to 10 feet, said Ray Robben, another National Weather Service forecaster.

“People should just stay away from the beaches (this) morning,” he said. “There’s a lot of variables, but the potential is there for some problems.”

The high surf attracted some surfers to the beach areas on Sunday, but because of the wind, “most of them weren’t very successful in getting out past their knees in the water,” one city lifeguard said.

Malibu Hit

In Malibu on Sunday night, residents were evacuating from at least two apartment houses, on Malibu Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway, as the surf swept up against building walls. In the posh Malibu Colony, sheriff’s deputies were keeping a close watch as the waves broke windows and threatened, if the surf got higher, to swamp homes completely.

In Redondo Beach’s King Harbor, hotel guests and employees had to evacuate from the Portofino Hotel as the lower floors became flooded and people feared the hotel itself was in danger of collapsing. A news helicopter transported people from the hotel roof.

Several nearby oceanfront restaurants had windows blown out and suffered water damage from the pounding surf.

On Sunday evening in Huntington Beach, a 100-foot section the pier, which had been battered by high tides and waves most of the day, collapsed into the surf, according to Huntington Beach police. In Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles County lifeguards gave out sandbags to beachfront residents, as water swept across an ocean front walk called The Strand.

Many Los Angeles area residents awoke to thunder and lightning storms Sunday that blacked out power for brief periods to more than 70,000 homes and businesses.

Tornado in San Clemente

In San Clemente, a small tornado touched down on a baseball field about 9:45 a.m., uprooting a 30-foot-long wooden dugout, carrying it about 150 yards, and dropping it in the middle of Avenida Pico near Interstate 5.

“People said it was just swirling through the air about 50 to 60 feet off the ground,” San Clemente Police Sgt. Richard Downing said.

Two Huntington Beach youngsters were rescued from the rain-swollen Santa Ana River channel at 12:30 p.m. Sunday after rising waters trapped them on a sand bar, according to Bill Cooper, Huntington Beach battalion fire chief. The boys, ages 9 and 11, held onto weeds in rushing, waist-deep water until they were rescued nearly an hour later by two Huntington Beach lifeguards. The lifeguards swam to the boys in six-foot-deep water while holding onto an inflated fire hose used as a lifeline, Cooper said.

The storm also play a key factor in the plane crash in Newhall that killed two men and two women. The victims were not identified pending notification of relatives, and a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that the plane’s origin and destination were not known.

During the worst of the storm Sunday morning, several Los Angeles area roads and portions of freeways were closed. The storm had deposited a full inch of rain at the Civic Center by 4 p.m. Sunday, bringing the season total to 6.6 inches, just over the 6.32 norm for this time of year.

Other areas got more. A total of 2.67 inches fell in Monrovia during the 24 hours measured from 4 p.m. Saturday. In Pasadena, 2.2 inches fell, while 1.97 inches pelted Woodland Hills during the same period.

Residents Sandbagging

The National Weather Service recommended that residents in areas that frequently flood during such storms take precautionary measures. Some residents of Malibu, the South Bay beach areas and Newport Beach were sandbagging the fronts of their homes Sunday afternoon.

The greatest danger of flooding was expected at 7:52 a.m. today, when the high tide will reach 7 feet.

Exacerbating the problem, county lifeguards said, was that beaches in some areas were deeply eroded by the weekend storm, leaving less sand to protect coastal areas in the event large surf materializes.

“We lost 20 to 50 feet of sand at Zuma Beach in different places,” said Jim Jacobson, senior ocean lifeguard at Malibu. “There’s a lot less beach to watch.”

Malibu Beach faces south, however, and coastal flooding was expected to be the worst at west-facing beaches.

A beach parking lot at Santa Monica was flooded Sunday, and members of the Canadian Cirque du Soleil troupe pumped standing rainwater out of circus tents.

Several homes were damaged in Rowland Heights, and one woman was injured after rains drenched a hillside construction site, causing mud slides that flooded streets, yards and garages near the intersection of Brisa Lane and Windrose Drive.

Muddy Flow

Two families found mud oozing into their homes through baseboards after an earthen berm built by the construction company Friday in anticipation of the storm gave way. Damage was estimated at $5,000.

Dozens of firefighters were called out to sandbag the neighborhood, diverting the muddy flow Sunday afternoon and averting further damage.

Frank Robles, foreman with Tri-County, a contracting firm doing grading at the construction site, said the damage occurred because a storm drain had to be closed for two weeks during construction, and small earthen berms built to hold back any rainwater gave way.

The storm brought welcome snow to virtually all state mountain ski areas. Eleven inches of snow had fallen at Big Bear by 1 p.m. Sunday. Mt. Wilson reported 3 inches as of mid-afternoon. More than 3 feet of new snow was reported to have fallen Saturday and Sunday at Mammoth Mountain ski area.

The snow level was expected to drop below 4,000 feet by early today.

Dan Bowman, meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the low expected Sunday night was 46 degrees, with strong northwest winds. Tonight, he said, the lows in the Los Angeles Basin could dip to the high 30s or low 40s.

Centers Opened to Homeless

In response to forecasts of cold temperatures, the Los Angeles Community Development Department opened four recreation centers to house the homeless Sunday night, and officials planned to keep them open tonight, said Bob Vilmur, homeless projects coordinator.

He said the city set up four “warming centers” with a combined capacity of almost 400 beds.

Hoffer said the storm was caused by an intense low-pressure system hovering off Big Sur that was sending rains and snow in high areas from southern Oregon down to southern Baja California.

“Just imagine one giant eggbeater cranking as hard as you can,” Hoffer said. “That creates all sorts of winds as the air circulates real fast. That’s the low pressure we’ve got out there now, and that’s what could create all these big waves.”

Times staff writers Penelope McMillan, Laurie Becklund, Jim Carlton, Jess Bravin, Nieson Himmel and Carla Rivera contributed to this story.