Southland Reels From New Storm : Weather: ‘Tornado-like wind’ rips through Buena Park area, starting fires and damaging houses. Rains close freeways, cause power outages.

A second powerful winter storm plowed into Southern California on Sunday, closing freeways, blanketing the mountains with at least half a foot of snow, cutting power to thousands and generating a “tornado-like wind” that ripped through a neighborhood in Orange County.

In Buena Park, authorities were deluged with reports of a possible tornado that hit shortly after 8 p.m. on Valley View Street near La Palma Avenue. Fire officials could not confirm whether it was a tornado or high winds with lightning, but they described a swath of damage wreaked by a sudden stormy blast.

Residents said they were left frightened and confused by the jolt of wind. “It was like an earthquake,” said Don Bailey, whose roof was severely damaged by the storm.

Keith Kunz, who was watching television at the time, said: “The whole house shook like a 6 on the Richter scale. And there was a loud shrieking sound, like the noises you hear from an air raid siren.”

Though there were no reported injuries, several trees were split or uprooted, and the Fire Department raced to douse fires caused by the incident.

An aluminum awning was blown from a house on Los Angeles Street into high voltage power lines, temporarily knocking out electricity to more than 1,700 Buena Park residential customers.

“We have gotten many, many calls,” said Buena Park fire dispatcher Diane Boyles. “People have said it was a tornado, (but) it could have been high winds.”

Another fire official said, “Many homes in the Buena Park neighborhood lost antennas and had trees uprooted by a tornado-like windstorm.”

For the most part, however, Orange County was spared the full fury of the storm. Santa Ana received less than an inch of rain, which began Friday evening, compared to nearly 3 inches in Los Angeles.

Forecasters said the blustery rains should subside sometime today, but another wave is expected to hit Wednesday, leaving Rose Parade volunteers a bit testy over the possibility that a third storm might threaten the 36-year dry stretch enjoyed by the New Year’s Day spectacle.

“If it rains, I’ll make them do it over again,” said Karen Tharp, 44, as she worked under a South Pasadena tent to glue flowers on a float depicting two giant aliens toying with a space ship. “It’s not gonna rain on my parade.”

The foul weather was blamed for the death of a homeless man in Granada Hills, collapsed roofs in Northridge and Thousand Oaks, an oil spill in the Santa Clarita Valley and a small twister that lifted a motor home and shattered several of its windows at Gaviota State Beach north of Santa Barbara.

In the Los Angeles area, the Harbor Freeway was closed by flooding for a time between Imperial Highway and the San Diego Freeway.

A big rig truck pulling two trailers hit a patch of water and jackknifed on the northbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway, blocking four lanes of traffic north of the Ventura Freeway in Glendale. No one was injured.

Flooding also was reported on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, the Pasadena Freeway and the Long Beach Freeway. During the heaviest rains, the California Highway Patrol was receiving reports of nearly 40 accidents an hour.

“Slow down, slow down, slow down,” said Officer Steve Munday. “People have just got to start using their heads.”

The heavy rains forecast for Orange County did not materialize in many areas where brief, scattered showers were the order of the day.

Steve Burback, meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which supplies forecasts to The Times, said places in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara got almost an inch while Orange County got up to half an inch, with inland cities receiving even less.

In Newport Beach only .18 inches of rain had fallen by 4 p.m. in the previous 24 hours. But San Juan Capistrano recorded .67 inches of rain Sunday, giving it 1.18 inches since Friday afternoon.

In Stanton, 2,000 residents were left without electricity when the storm knocked out power, a Southern California Edison spokesman reported. But Edison spokesman Steve Sullivan said the service was restored within two hours.

Burback said fewer clouds will cause temperatures to drop to the 40s to near 50 across the county. Winds will be light.

By Sunday evening, 1.78 inches of rain had fallen at the Los Angeles Civic Center, bringing to nearly 3 inches the two storms’ total since Friday night.

Elsewhere in Southern California, Glendale reported 1.74 inches; Long Beach .34; Torrance 1.54; Woodland Hills 2.06; Monrovia 1.38; Newhall 2.34; Palm Springs .06; Del Mar .74, and Fallbrook .75. Mt. Wilson had 8 inches of snow, while Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains reported 2 inches.

The cold, wet weather was responsible for the death of a homeless man who died of hypothermia in Granada Hills, authorities said.

The unidentified man, who appeared to be about 35, was brought by ambulance to Granada Hills Community Hospital Saturday morning and was pronounced dead a short time later. A nursing supervisor said the transient was found unconscious on wet, cold ground in a vacant lot.

Inclement weather had driven 81 persons to seek shelter Sunday evening at the National Guard Armory at 400 S. Brookhurst St. in Fullerton. Among them were a young mother with her 6-month-old baby, a family of six, with four children ranging in age from 8 to 15, and Clyde Skinner, 35, an unemployed carpet layer.

Skinner said he and his family usually sleep in their van, but because they were all getting colds, they decided to sleep in the shelter.

And in La Habra, as if things weren’t wet enough, a hit-and-run driver uprooted a fire hydrant, leaving a gushing column of water in the 200 block of South Harbor Boulevard.

The National Weather Service issued an urban flood advisory for Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, warning that heavy rainfall would leave some streets deep in water.

In the Tehachapi Mountains, heavy snow and high winds reduced visibility to near zero, forcing the CHP to close Interstate 5 near the Tejon Pass. CHP officers stood by to escort vehicles through the area during breaks in the storm and, by late afternoon, had led more than 500 cars through the treacherous pass.

Many motorists, however, were forced to sit in their cars for two or three hours at Lake Hughes Road.

The storm set off a waterspout at Gaviota State Beach in Santa Barbara County. It moved onshore, lifting a mobile home off the ground, damaging several windows and slightly injuring two people.

Some conditions had improved after two days of rain. Orange County fire officials reported low water levels in the Santa Ana River, which flooded Saturday night, trapping four homeless people who sought shelter under an overpass.

In Huntington Beach, which got some heavy rains, the surf was 3 feet, but surfers stayed away. “It’s pretty cold. It hasn’t been a very nice day,” lifeguard Daniel Sforza said.

Nevertheless, farther south, the surfing situation was different.

“Surprisingly, there are a lot of surfers and body boarders,” said San Clemente lifeguard Jeff Harman.

Harman said, “it’s still quite a wind-blown situation.” He said winds gusted to 23 m.p.h. with surf ranging from 3 to 5 feet. “It’s pretty overcast, the winds are howling and the surf is storming,” he said. In Santa Clarita, the weekend rain led to a spill of more than 120 gallons of oil into the Placerita Canyon wash from a malfunctioning refinery well. Officials said the Saturday spill posed more of an inconvenience than a danger.

The oil coated about 1 1/2 miles of the wash after rainwater carried it from an Arco well at Placerita Canyon and Sierra Highway, Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. David Moore said. California Department of Fish and Game officials, as well as workers from the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s hazardous materials division, used sandbags to keep the oil from flowing farther and special sponges to soak the oil out of the wash.

The strong downpour also caved in part of the roof in the stock room at a Thousand Oaks K mart store, damaging more than $10,000 worth of merchandise. Three to four inches of mud slid into the streets Saturday in the Chevy Chase Canyon area of Glendale. Rocks also rolled down the hills onto Kanan Road between the Pacific Coast Highway and the Mulholland Highway, while fog cut visibility to 50 feet.

The northern arm of the storm dropped a new layer of snow on the Sierra Nevada range--up to two feet in the Lake Tahoe area and up to three feet on Mammoth Mountain. The heavy snow was viewed as water in the bank by state drought officials. The snowfall won’t end the state’s six-year-old drought, but the early winter pack--up to 50% of normal in the Tahoe Basin--will help fill reservoirs as well as delight skiers.

In Southern California, the rainfall will help ease the drought mainly in places such as Santa Barbara that depend on local rainfall to fill their reservoirs. Most of the region from Ventura County to San Diego relies on water imported from the Sierra and the Colorado River, so the main positive effect of the drenching will be to water lawns and wash the residue of summer and autumn off city streets.

The storm first hit the coast around Santa Barbara then moved south and east across the Los Angeles metropolitan area toward the deserts.

Forecasters said the next storm would probably arrive over Southern California on Wednesday, although there was some chance that the morning Tournament of Roses parade--if not the afternoon Rose Bowl football game--could sneak in before the downpour.

According to Burback of WeatherData Inc., there is a 25% chance of rain Wednesday morning, rising to 40% in the afternoon and 70% by the evening.

“It’s moving pretty quickly, so it will be here to affect the game, if not the parade,” Burback said.

Rain has dampened the Rose Parade nine times, though all but one of those instances was before World War II. The last time weather threatened was in 1982, but the rains abruptly halted--as if on cue--15 minutes before parade time. Organizers said the parade will go on, regardless of the weather.

Parade volunteers and tourists already arriving in recreational vehicles to secure top vantage spots--tried to find the silver lining in Sunday’s storm.

In a parking lot at Pasadena City College, dozens of sodden RV enthusiasts worked to park their campers and unhitch trailers in the pouring rain.

“I could squeeze a glass of water from each of my socks right about now,” said Ron Vanausdoll of Pico Rivera, who had volunteered to help direct traffic in the lot.

“There’s an old song I just don’t believe anymore: ‘It never rains in California,’ ” said Virginia Haycock of Ft. Pierce, Fla., who stood near her trailer dripping in a dark green rain poncho. “We’re glad for all of you here in California, that you’re getting the rain you so desperately need, but I’m hoping it stops for the parade.”

Her husband, Cliff, said years of camping have taught them to be prepared for anything.

“We roll with the flow,” he said.

This story includes reports from Times staff writers in the San Fernando Valley and in Ventura, Orange and San Diego counties.

The Rain

24-hour total: 0.22 in.

Storm total : 0.88 in.

Monthly total: 1.26 in.

Total for season: 1.26 in.

Last season to date: 0.45 in.

Normal season to date: 3.47 in.

Figures, based on 4 p.m. readings at the Santa Ana Fire Department headquarters, are compiled by WeatherData which provides forecasts for The Times.