Rain, Cold Swamp Homeless Shelters

Weekend rains and low temperatures plummeting into the 40s overnight left homeless shelters bursting with people Sunday, and weather forecasters are calling for even colder temperatures tonight.

The rains were also blamed for many of the traffic accidents that left 22 people dead statewide by Sunday evening.

At the Weingart Center in downtown Los Angeles, resident coordinator Timothy Hawkins said: “We have a few vacancies, but we expect them to fill early. City buses picked up 150 people last night and took them to other shelters.”

Staffers at the Union Rescue Mission on Los Angeles’ Skid Row said that their facility was “overflowing.”

“We fed over 800 yesterday and another 2,000 to 3,000 today,” said the mission’s Green Hilhouse Sunday. “We expect to be overflowing tonight. They’re already packed in.”

Police estimated that more than 700 Skid Row residents had been picked up at downtown centers and bused to emergency shelters by early Sunday evening.

Counties are able to use National Guard armories as temporary shelters on rainy nights when the temperature falls below 50, and on other nights when the low temperature drops to 40.

Snow fell as low as 2,000 feet, and Interstate 5 was closed for an hour at the Grapevine because of snow.

The mercury will climb no higher than the mid-50s today, and overnight lows will range from the chilly high 30s to only slightly milder low 40s, said Rick Bittmann, a meteorologist with WeatherData, Inc. which provides forecasts to The Times.

Today will be mostly sunny, with no rain, Bittmann said, “but some inland valleys could see some low temperatures in the upper 20s and low 30s.”

“Agricultural interests will have to monitor that situation carefully,” he said.

An unseasonably cold air mass is responsible for the frigid weather, Bittmann said. “A little warming trend will begin on Tuesday, but there will be a good chance of rain again on Wednesday and Thursday.”

By early Sunday evening, at least 22 people were killed in traffic accidents over the holiday weekend that began at 6 p.m. Friday and runs through midnight tonight, authorities said. Nine fatalities were recorded in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Jessica Warren, 19, of Stanton, and Dawn Hammond, 20, of Costa Mesa, were killed in Westminster when their car collided with a speeding police cruiser, police said. The officer driving the cruiser suffered minor injuries.

A Santa Catalina Island resident was killed Friday when the golf cart she was driving collided head-on with a pickup truck during a steady rain in Avalon, deputies said.

Virginia M. Lopez, 56, was heading home with last-minute groceries and a present for her granddaughter when the accident occurred, deputies said. Many Catalina residents use golf carts to negotiate the island’s narrow, twisting streets.

The truck driver, Fernando Bentura-Tamayo, 18, was arrested and booked for investigation of felony drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter, deputies said. He was held in lieu of $2,500 bail.