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5 Inches Pile Up in Areas of Valley : Schools and Highways Shut Down; Storm to Continue

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Times Staff Writers

Snow fell across Southern California from the hillsides of Malibu to the streets at Palm Springs this morning as another powerful Arctic storm swept down from the north, closing schools, sealing off mountain highways and creating mammoth traffic jams.

Forecasters said the snow should continue to fall sporadically in scattered foothill areas for the rest of today and into tonight, with accumulations of up to 2 feet expected at mountain resorts. Rain was expected at lower elevations throughout the day.

The snow pretty much bypassed Orange County, as overnight temperatures reached a relatively warm 38 to 42 degrees.

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Laurie Ames, 33, a visitor from Toronto who found herself stuck below heavy snow on Cajon Pass, said she had come to the Southland with “visions of orange trees, sunshine and heat. . . .

“My visions of sunny California are shot,” she said.

Melted in the Desert

The snow that fell early this morning didn’t stick for long in Malibu and Palm Springs, but as much as 5 inches piled up in the Westlake, Porter Ranch, Calabasas, Simi Valley, Tarzana and Granada Hills areas.

“I looked out a window at about 2 a.m. and everything was white, floating and swirling, absolutely gorgeous,” said Glenda Lubas of Granada Hills. “I went out and took photographs of our dogs romping in the snow. My daughter built a snowman. It all looks like a Christmas card.”

In the hills above the Lubas home, children grabbed cardboard boxes and trash can lids to slide down the hillsides denuded by last December’s devastating brush fires.

“It was all black and ugly and horrible, now it’s all white and glistening and beautiful,” said Mary Ellen Crosby.

Officials in the Santa Clarita Valley said the community was “basically sealed off” at mid-morning by 3 to 5 inches of snow, with more continuing to fall.

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Robert Norlemann, a deputy at the sheriff’s station there, said the community was paralyzed by ice and more snow was falling.

“Our schools are closed--everything’s closed,” he said. “When people call in, we tell them to take the day off.”

Schools also were closed in the Antelope Valley, where officials said it was still snowing heavily at mid-day.

The principal highways into the Southland from the north and east--Interstate 5 over the Tejon Pass, California 14 between Newhall and Palmdale, Interstate 15 over the Cajon Pass and Interstate 10 through San Gorgonio Pass--were all closed by snow and ice.

More than 40 traffic alerts were issued throughout the area during the morning rush hour as cars spun, skidded and caromed on pavement made slick by ice, snow and rain. However there were no reports of fatal accidents this morning.

“It’s chaotic, the worst I’ve seen in years,” said Officer Ernie Garcia, a spokesman for the main California Highway Patrol dispatch center in Los Angeles. “People are even driving the wrong way on the freeways, trying to avoid the closures. . . . There are traffic jams everywhere. It’s a mess.”

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The new storm--chilled by the cold wave that has swept south from Alaska, setting low-temperature records across the nation--is the second to strike the Southland in less than a week. Last Saturday a storm dropped several inches of rain in the Los Angeles Basin and nearly a foot of snow in nearby mountains.

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