Southland Reels From New Storm : Weather: Flooded freeways, power failures, mountain snow and threats to Rose Parade accompany blustery front.

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 stirring anxiety that the Tournament of Roses’ unprecedented 36-year dry stretch could be washed out.

Forecasters said the blustery rains should subside sometime today, but another wave of moisture is expected to hit Wednesday, leaving Rose Parade volunteers a bit testy over the possibility that a third storm might dampen 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 paste 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 in Santa Barbara County.

In the Los Angeles area, the Harbor Freeway was flooded by the heavy rains and closed shortly after noon between Imperial Highway and Interstate 405. A big-rig truck pulling two trailers hit a patch of water on the northbound Golden State Freeway and jackknifed, blocking four lanes of traffic north of the 134 Freeway. No one was injured, officials said.

Flooding was reported on 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.”

More than an inch of rain fell Sunday in the Los Angeles Civic Center, just 24 hours after the first storm had dumped an inch.

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 Athens area north of Gardena and near the corner of Budlong Avenue and Imperial Highway, the flooding was no idle threat. Water backed up five feet deep, possibly due to a blocked storm drain, submerging cars and flooding several homes.

County work crews were busy Sunday with pumps, but officials said they would not know the cause of the blockage until the water was gone.

“Lake Budlong,” quipped Sheriff’s Sgt. David Nell of the nearby Lennox station.

In the Harbor area, fallen palm fronds short-circuited power lines, temporarily cutting electricity to about 5,000 customers, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials said.

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, and at least one man was irritated by the lack of information about when the roadway would reopen.

“There’s a lot of people getting very irate because we come off the road and we don’t know what’s going on,” said Jerry Aldridge, who was on his way to Santa Rosa. “You sit in a car for four or five hours and see if you don’t get frustrated.”

The northern arm of the storm buried the Sierra Nevada range beneath more than a foot of snow, a layer viewed as water in the bank by state drought officials. The snowfall will not end the state’s six-year drought, but the early winter pack will help as well as delight skiers.

In Southern California, the rainfall will help ease the drought mainly in places like Santa Barbara, which 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 effect of the drenching will be to water lawns and wash the residue of summer off city streets.

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 spill Saturday 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, said Capt. David Moore of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. California Department of Fish and Game officials and 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, Moore said.

In Thousand Oaks, a small mudslide on a hillside scorched by a brush fire last summer dumped dirt and water into eight back yards at the North Ranch Village Townhomes, said Ventura County Fire Capt. Charles Sitton.

Seventeen firefighters scooped out some of the mud and put a few dozen sandbags at the bottom of the hill to prevent additional mudslides, Sitton said.

“The fire destroyed some of the growth that would have caught this,” Sitton said.

Erica Chapman, 19, a resident of the complex, said she was shocked to find mud a foot deep in her back yard when she awoke Sunday morning.

“We have massive amounts of mud everywhere,” said Chapman, adding that her picnic table and chairs were damaged in the brown cascade.

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 Pacific Coast Highway and the Mulholland Highway, while fog cut visibility to 50 feet, a CHP spokeswoman said.

The heavy rains Sunday morning and afternoon largely bypassed Orange and San Diego counties, where scattered showers were reported. 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 Steve Burback of WeatherData Inc., a private firm that provides forecasts for The Times, 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, although all but one of those instances were 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.

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 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 a soaked 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. “It’s flowing a little more than we’d like today . . . . California didn’t have to make up for six years of drought in one day.”

As he spoke, another group of Floridians sloshed past in rain ponchos, grumbling: “Sunny California. What sunny California?”

Nearby, float decorators stamped their feet, rubbed their hands and sometimes jogged in place to stay warm in the cold dampness. But even the torrents of rain could not wipe the smiles from their faces.

Tharp, the float volunteer in South Pasadena, said that the rain actually helps make the floats more beautiful because it preserves the flowers. Her husband, Larry, said a friend of his has been praying that the deluge continues right through New Year’s Day.

“He gets sick of all these people who see sunny California on the television during the parade and want to move out here,” Larry Tharp said. “He wishes it would rain on the parade all day, really hard, and then just as everyone gets to the Rose Bowl for the game, that there would be a big earthquake. He figures that would scare them off.”

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