Rainfall Cheers O.C. Growers, Snarls Traffic

The strongest rainstorm of the season ambled into Orange County as expected Thursday, delighting farmers and nursery owners even as it tormented motorists and patrol officers and caused dozens of traffic accidents.

Meteorologists expected that up to an inch of rain would fall on Orange County by midnight Thursday, making it the biggest rainfall since May. The wettest city in the county by 4 p.m. Thursday was El Toro, registering 0.45 inches.

Scattered showers are expected to continue this afternoon and evening in some parts of the county before the storm passes to the east. With rain giving way to clear, sunny skies by the weekend, temperatures are expected to climb slightly to highs in the 60s or low 70s in Orange County.

Thursday’s storm created havoc on Orange County freeways, according to the California Highway Patrol.

During the dry months “people let their cars go; they don’t check their tires, and then they’re surprised when they don’t have any traction--or good windshield wipers--when the rains come,” said CHP Officer Angel Johnson in Santa Ana.

“People were still driving 70 m.p.h.” down the Costa Mesa Freeway in the rain, she said. “It’s just amazing.”

During Thursday morning’s rush-hour alone, CHP officers responded to more than 30 accidents, Johnson said, most of them fender-benders. The late afternoon saw 40 more traffic accidents in what Officer Linda Burrus called “one of the roughest days we’ve had.”

Surprisingly, CHP officers said, none of the accidents appeared to involve serious injuries but some did snarl county freeways for hours.

“We’ve had so many crashes today that all our officers are doing is basically going from one crash to the next,” Johnson said.

But it was a different story for the county’s $250-million agriculture industry, which has had its endurance tested by the one-two punch of a seemingly endless drought and prolonged cold at the end of the year.

At the Stanton Tree Farm, co-owner Bill Nickel had no customers willing to brave the rains to buy his trees and plants, but he was smiling anyway from the money he figures he saved by not having to water his 10 acres.

“Ain’t this great!” he declared as he watched the downpour.

“This should mean just a tremendous benefit to the agriculture and horticulture industry,” said Frank Parsons, deputy agriculture commissioner for Orange County. “This has been a long-awaited rain and it’s certainly welcomed by us.”

Parsons said the day’s rains should be enough to make a difference in the growing patterns of strawberries, citrus, avocadoes, and a range of other produce.

Moreover, he said, “this type of rain, if we get enough of it, will tend to replenish the underground aquifers, so there’s certainly a long-term benefit as well.”

Before Thursday, the Southland had only 0.21 of an inch of precipitation since the rain season started July 1, less than 1/20th of the seasonal average for the period, according to the National Weather Service. The state’s prolonged drought, now in its fourth year, has prompted water rationing and other conservation measures in some parts of Southern California.

“We’re happy to see it,” said Dean Thompson, spokesman for the State Drought Center in Sacramento. “We wish there were a bunch of (rainstorms) coming. But by itself we don’t expect it to last long enough to be any significant benefit to us as far as the drought is concerned. “We’re far behind,” Thompson said. “Hopefully, this is the first step (in) catching up.”

As expected, the beaches were virtually deserted save for a few brave fishermen just offshore. Attendance plummeted at outdoor amusement parks. And many sought refuge at indoor malls. But some were not able to adjust their schedules to accommodate the weather.

Robbie Gomes, 27, of Orange and Larry Beck, 50, of San Bernardino, for instance, were left with the sometimes slippery task of putting up a new sign above a Pep Boys store on Beach Boulevard in Westminster.

Despite a pair of heavy-duty insulated gloves just for the occasion, Gomes still got a few mild shocks as he worked with his electrical equipment in the constant showers to put up the auto-parts firm’s sign. Still, he wasn’t complaining.

“Somebody’s gotta do it,” said a rain-soaked Gomes, who works for an Orange sign company. “That’s what it comes down to.”

That was the attitude adopted as well by postal carrier Jose Melendez, 32, of Santa Ana, as he sloshed through puddles to deliver commercial mail.

“Neither rain nor sleet and all that stuff,” Melendez said, starting to recite the U.S. Postal Service’s motto. “This is no different than any other day--well, not that different. We haven’t gotten the rain in so long, we need it.”

Times staff writer John Kendall in Los Angeles contributed to this report.