Clear Skies Ease Wintry Day’s Bite for Southlanders

Monday was one of those classically beautiful winter days in Southern California--clear, breezy and crisply cool.

For most residents of the Southland, it was a day to clean up the gift wrappings, watch some sports on the tube, take a brisk stroll along the beach, or try out a new pair of skis.

But for hundreds of the homeless, it meant marking time until 4 p.m. or so, when the first vans began showing up to take people to the emergency shelters that have been open since last Tuesday to handle the overflow resulting from the chilly weather.

Institutions normally providing shelter--places like the Union Rescue Mission, the Weingart Center and the Midnight Mission--reported every bed taken.

“It’s because of the cold,” said Frank Marvilla, a desk clerk at the Midnight Mission. “All our beds were full by 12:30 this afternoon.”

Diana Vuist, assistant manager at the Weingart Center, said the center was “full up all weekend, and we’ll be full again tonight.

“The overflow is being bused up to Elysian Park, where they set up cots in the armory,” she said. “When that gets full, they can send people to other places. So far, everyone’s being accommodated who wants a place to stay.”

The cold weather may have contributed to at least one death among the homeless.

On Monday morning, the body of an unidentified man was found on a downtown street and authorities said they were investigating the possibility that he died of hypothermia.

Coroner’s Deputy William Sheffield said the victim, believed to be in his 40s and clad only in underwear and a T-shirt, was found near the corner of Boyd and Los Angeles streets. Autopsy results were pending and fingerprints were being studied by Los Angeles police in an effort to identify the man, Sheffield said.

And late Monday, Los Angeles County fire officials reported that an Altadena woman was rendered unconscious and four of her children were sickened by carbon monoxide fumes that filled their home in the 300 block of West Acacia Street.

“They were using a barbecue hibachi in the kitchen to heat the house with and all became ill,” said a firefighter, who declined to give his name.

The woman, Maria Enteriamo, 40, and three girls, 11, 14 and 15 years old, and a boy, 9, were taken by paramedics to Huntington Memorial Hospital. Nurses said they were expected to recover.

For many more fortunate Southlanders, the Monday holiday was a chance to go to the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains, where as much as a foot of new snow fell by dawn.

“We’ve got anywhere from 24 to 52 inches of snow on the ground, and skiing is excellent,” said Monica Badows, communications coordinator at the Bear Mountain Resort, near Big Bear Lake.

Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the predawn snow fell from a cold, unstable air mass left behind by the wintry storm system that moved through the Southland earlier in the weekend.

The total rainfall for the season downtown stood at 3.69 inches, compared to the normal seasonal total for the date of 4 inches even.

Dittmann said Monday’s generally clear and breezy weather in the metropolitan area resulted from a high-pressure system that gradually filled in behind the departing storm.

The high temperature at the Los Angeles Civic Center reached 57 degrees, after an overnight low of 38. While that low reading was cold, it was still three degrees above the record low for the date, set last year. Relative humidity on Monday ranged between a high of 82% and a low of 23%.

“Tuesday should be mostly sunny and a little warmer after a pretty cold night, especially in the wind-sheltered valleys, where the thermometer could dip into the upper 20s,” Dittmann said.