Storm Causes Havoc on Roads Across S.D. : Weather: Downpour pushes rainfall total to above normal for county and brings major snowfall.

A strong rainstorm pounded San Diego on Sunday, flooding intersections, closing highways, causing occasional power outages and making life miserable for motorists forced to inch their way through the county.

At the same time, the steady downpour pushed the seasonal rainfall total above the normal level for only the third time in the past five years of drought. And, for the first time this season, a serious blanket of snow fell in the mountains.

“We’ve had small amounts of snow before but this is going to be the first snowfall that amounts to anything,” said Frank O’Leary, a National Weather Service forecaster in San Diego.

Although the snow caused little concern, the rain prompted traffic tie-ups, fender-benders and spinouts galore. Between midnight Saturday and 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the California Highway Patrol in San Diego County responded to 108 accidents, none of them fatal.

“That’s a pretty high number,” CHP spokesman John Marinez said. “We don’t usually get up into that range, but it came down pretty hard today and people were driving like they always do.”

On the campus of UC San Diego, a branch from a 30-foot tree fell and crushed three cars, but nobody was hurt, San Diego police said.

Flooding hit hard in the Mission Valley, Midway and Point Loma areas as intersections and streets were closed off and cars quickly rerouted. An urban flood advisory was issued Sunday afternoon.

Rainfall ranged from 0.8 inches to 1.3 inches throughout the county. So far this season, which began July 1, San Diego County has accumulated 4 inches of rain, which is higher than normal by 0.6 inches, O’Leary said. By today, skies were expected to clear just in time for a less severe storm Tuesday.

An inch of snow hit Palomar Mountain and Mt. Laguna, while a light dusting was reported in Julian.

Power outages were sporadic throughout the county. At Furr’s Cafeteria in the 5400 block of University Avenue, more than 100 diners sat in the dark as electricity was off for more than an hour.

The storm was a mixed blessing in Los Angeles, where high winds uprooted trees, triggered slides and forced highways to shut down. It also pushed Los Angeles rainfall to higher-than-normal levels for the first time in the five years of drought.

The rain volume is “good news for everyone,” said Stephen Ahn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service there. By evening, the storm had dumped 1.23 inches of rain on the Los Angeles Civic Center, surpassing the 57-year-old record for the date, he said.

Meteorologists said the storm was expected to dump up to 12 inches of snow in area mountains by Sunday night, with another 12 inches possible this morning.

The weather may have contributed to the deaths of two brothers in Ventura County.

The men were believed to have died after setting out in an 8-foot dinghy to explore caves on Anacapa Island on Saturday afternoon. Caught in the bad weather, the brothers--Bryan and Monte Bolton, 21 and 27, of Provo, Utah--may have become stranded at Cathedral Cave. After temporarily suspending the search because of the storm, rescuers discovered Bryan Bolton’s body late Sunday afternoon.

“This kind of storm is (historically) very usual in Southern California,” Ahn said, “but since we haven’t received (such weather) in five years, people think it’s a lot of rain.”

The wet weather does not spell the end of the drought, however, because it will take several years of normal or above-normal precipitation to counter the years of low rainfall, Ahn said. “That could take another four years,” he said.

Rainfall varied significantly throughout Southern California, with Newhall recording 1.96 inches while San Juan Capistrano reported 0.58. In Glendale, 1.41 inches of rain fell; there were 1.22 inches in Monrovia and 0.9 inches in Torrance.

Sunday’s storm originated in the Gulf of Alaska. One of several factors contributing to it was a light-to-moderate “El Nino”--a condition in which warmer-than-normal equatorial waters alter the usual wind patterns--in the eastern Pacific.

As weather officials calculated the extent of the downpour, rain and snow wreaked havoc among motorists and homeowners.

Interstate 5 over the Tejon Pass was closed for about two hours Sunday because of wind and snow. By noon, the California Highway Patrol was escorting 200 motorists at a time through the area.

The Antelope Valley Freeway was closed for several hours beginning at 1 p.m. at Escondido Canyon Road in Agua Dulce. “You can’t see more than five feet in front of you,” Officer Bob Smart said, adding that earlier in the day several motorists were involved in minor accidents along the rain-slicked freeway that is the main route between Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley.

Water flooded three lanes of the San Diego Freeway south of Los Angeles International Airport, prompting a rash of accidents that included a five-car pileup.

“There are so many accidents going on there’s no way we can log every flood,” Smart said.

Mudslides forced the temporary closure of California 33 near Ojai.

In Orange County, flooding closed a lane of the southbound I-5 at the junction with the 91 Freeway, while minor fender-benders were reported on surface streets throughout the county. Meanwhile, county work crews cleaned large branches and uprooted trees from roadways in half a dozen locations after strong winds swept through the southern part of the county, a public works spokesman said.

In Glendale, Carmen Beirne, 76, spent several hours trapped in her home after high winds toppled a 75-foot, 100-year-old oak tree over her driveway and porch.

“Even in death, it’s majestic,” she said as city crews worked to free her. “This was like a friend, a member of the family. I just can’t believe it’s down. It’s like a nightmare.”

In the upscale community of Quartz Hill outside of Palmdale, residents sandbagged their homes to prevent the type of flooding that last year damaged more than three dozen houses. Water filled Sandra Briggs’ garage as crews worked feverishly to sandbag her house.

“It’s let up for now,” said Briggs, whose house was flooded with seven inches of water in March. “But who knows what’s coming?”

Times staff writers Mark Landsbaum and Aaron Curtiss contributed to this story.