Massive Storm Kills 3, Stirs Havoc Over State : Weather: A Santa Ana girl survives burial in a snow avalanche in Angeles National Forest. The weather front lingered over Orange County.

The strongest storm of the winter season pummeled Southern California on Saturday, causing three deaths, a flurry of mudslides, power outages, street flooding and freeway accidents, as well as setting the stage for an avalanche that buried an Orange County girl for almost two hours in Angeles National Forest.

The huge storm system moved across the state at the same time that thousands of Californians began heading to the mountains for the long Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. Forecasters and the California Highway Patrol urged people to postpone their trips until the weather clears.

The storm was massive, extending well to the north of Sacramento and into central Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. More rain and snow is expected today and Monday before the slow-moving front begins to move eastward early in the week.

Santiago Peak in South Orange County reported the most rainfall in the county--more than 5.5 inches--but many other locations also were drenched in two inches or more, meteorologists said. The deluge put a dent in the three-year drought that has stricken the Southland, but more is needed, experts said.

“Two or three more storms like this will really help” said Joe Haug, an Orange County environmental resources specialist. “It’s definitely above normal for what we have been getting the past two years.”

The storm, which originated in the Gulf of Alaska and struck hard in Northern California earlier in the week, was centered in Orange County throughout much of Saturday afternoon, said meteorologist Bill Hibbert of WeatherData, which is based in Wichita, Kan.

“It looks like the moisture is feeding off the ocean down there and is moving up into the mountains,” Hibbert said.

The rain, three times heavier than predicted, played havoc with the freeway systems. The California Highway Patrol responded to scores of traffic accidents, most of which were minor, in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

However, Kuo Sieng Parng, 30, of West Covina, was killed early Saturday morning when his 1986 Pontiac Fiero skidded out of control on the Orange Freeway near Orangethorpe Avenue in Placentia and tumbled down a 100-foot embankment into the swollen Carbon Creek Channel.

The car landed upside down and was carried by strong currents for more than 300 feet, said CHP Officer Scott Wayne, who helped retrieve the body.

At about 2 p.m. Saturday, Tamara Louise McCracken, 29, of La Habra, was killed when her car collided with another vehicle in the 2700 block of North Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton.

McCracken’s 9-year-old- daughter was treated at St. Jude Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Fullerton for minor injuries and released. Fullerton Police Sgt. Glenn Deveney said McCracken’s car, which was traveling north on Harbor Boulevard, collided with an oncoming vehicle “in very heavy rains.”

In Los Angeles County, an unidentified man was killed about noon while driving along the Foothill Freeway, police said.

In Angeles National Forest, Carrie Heiman, 15, was rescued by a search team Saturday after she was buried for almost two hours in an avalanche.

Heiman, part of a group from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana that was hiking near the Ester Christian Conference Center, was taken to Palmdale Medical Center, where she was treated for frostbite and later released.

The area where the avalanche occurred received a heavy dose of snow overnight and early Saturday as the powerful winter storm left a blanket of snow from the northern Sierra Nevada south to the San Bernardino Mountains. Ski resort managers said it was one of the largest storms to hit there in two or three years.

In Los Angeles County, a rain-triggered mudslide closed Malibu Canyon Road to Mulholland on Friday night but it was reopened at midday Saturday. No injuries were reported. Police said heavy flooding was reported on the Santa Ana, San Diego and Harbor freeways, severely slowing traffic but not closing any.

Roads leading to nearby ski resorts remained open, but the CHP urged motorists to stay home rather than risk hazardous driving conditions.

Skiers and weekend vacationers heading to Lake Tahoe and Reno, Nev., encountered serious delays Friday and early Saturday when parts of Interstate 80 leading from Sacramento to Reno and U.S. 50 over the mountains to South Lake Tahoe were temporarily closed. The roads were reopened Saturday.

“The last we heard was that U.S. 50 is open again, but only if you have chains or snow tires,” said Nancy Kopcho, a dispatcher with the South Lake Tahoe Police Department. “It was a real good storm. The worst was yesterday (Friday). It’s still coming down, but it is a lot lighter.”

In Orange County, despite reports of heavy street flooding, only one closure was reported when the short Laguna Freeway was closed between the San Diego and Santa Ana Freeways.

Workers for the Orange County Environmental Management Agency were working overtime chasing reports of clogged storm drains.

“We’re busy, real busy,” said public works operations manager Bill Reiter, adding that almost 50 workers were called in to help weekend crews keep street flooding to a minimum.

Reiter also said that heavy rains in the Santiago and Silverado Canyon areas triggered mudslides. “There’s a lot of debris on the road,” he said, but added that they were not closed.

Meanwhile, a bluff along El Camino Real in San Clemente remained intact despite concerns that it had been weakened. A mile stretch of El Camino Real has been closed since Feb. 5 when large cracks in the hillside were discovered.

“It doesn’t look like it’s tumbled down yet,” said San Clemente Police dispatcher Bill Davis. “We’re checking it periodically.”

Up to 15 inches of additional snow were expected in some mountainous areas Saturday, up from the six to eight feet of new snow that already was on the ground in elevations above 7,000 feet in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

So strong was the storm that the National Weather Service said snow was falling near sea level in some areas, including in the northern Sacramento Valley town of Red Bluff.

Staff writer Davan Maharaj contributed to this story