It’s Not Over Yet : Heavy Rains Create Freeway Havoc, Won’t Clear Out Until Late Today

Rain squalls that pummeled Southern California on Thursday afternoon and triggered massive traffic jams in Orange County are expected to continue today, but forecasters said the Pacific storm system should move off into northern Mexico by tonight, with fair and warmer weather for the weekend.

The downpour dampened the Southland’s parched brushlands, but weather forecasters said it is probably too little too late in the rainy season to make much of a dent in the prolonged dry spell. It did create freeway havoc for already frazzled commuters, CHP officers said.

“Orange County had one of its worst days of the year,” an exhausted CHP Officer Michael Lundquist said Thursday night of the rain-snarled traffic. “I would say it’s double to triple our non-rainy days. . . . It took us so long to get to some of these accidents that people gave up and had already left. And we have no idea how many people simply didn’t bother to call us at all. But 41 disabled vehicles in the middle of traffic? That’s incredible.”

Only one-tenth of an inch of rain had fallen in parts of the county including Santa Ana and Newport Beach by 5 p.m. Thursday, but as much as an inch of rain may fall in some sections of the Southland before the chilly, wind-swept storm departs, and up to 10 inches of snow was predicted at some resort areas in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains above 5,000 feet.

The rain snarled rush-hour traffic Thursday evening and, after only seven pitches, forced the postponement of the 1:05 p.m. California Angels baseball game against the Chicago White Sox in Anaheim--only the 14th rain-out in history for the Angels at home.

Before the showers drifted into Orange County Thursday, one man was killed at about 6 a.m. in a bizarre Riverside Freeway accident in Fullerton, Lundquist said.

His body was not discovered, however, until about 4 p.m., when a passing motorist spotted it on the shoulder of the Magnolia Avenue off-ramp, Lundquist said. He said officers found scrape marks on a 100-foot stretch of guard rail, and they believe that the man was either the driver or passenger on a motorcycle. However, Lundquist said, no vehicle was found.

“I suppose either the driver lost his passenger and kept on going, or someone came along and took the motorcycle and didn’t report the death,” Lundquist said. Several motorists were critically injured in weather-related traffic pile-ups throughout Orange County Thursday, beginning at dawn, CHP officers said.

As rain beat down on the southbound Orange Freeway near the Tonner Canyon on-ramp, officers said, a woman driving a Chrysler braked for no apparent reason and spun clockwise. Her car was hit by a van, and then crossed all southbound lanes before it was broadsided by a tractor. Another truck also was involved in the collision, which tied up traffic for some time, officers said. Harold and her passenger, Carolyn Thomas had to be transported by helicopter to UCI Medical Center, where Harold was reported in critical condition.