Storm Wreaks Havoc but Dampens Drought : Weather: Three Southland deaths include that of O.C. boy killed in crash on way to Sunday school.

By DAVID HALDANE and DAVAN MAHARAJ

Jan. 6, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

A savage storm tore into Southern California on Sunday, mustering high winds, uprooting trees, closing highways, triggering slides and causing at least three deaths, including an 8-year-old Orange County boy who died in a traffic accident.

In Orange County, the storm dumped up to an inch of rain in some areas, causing flooded streets and power outages, and triggering countless fender-benders on city streets and freeways.

“We’ve had so many accidents today that we’ve lost count,” said a California Highway Patrol spokesman in Santa Ana. “Our adding machine broke. . . .”

In Los Angeles, Sunday’s storm pushed the city’s rainfall to higher than normal levels for the first time in six years of drought. By Sunday evening, meteorologists with the National Weather Service said the storm had dropped 1.23 inches of rain on the Los Angeles Civic Center, bringing the season’s total to 5.24 inches. Normal rainfall by this time of year, said NWS meteorologist Stephen Ahn, is 4.91 inches.

Even with the weekend storm, Orange County’s rainfall was still below normal. The season total for Santa Ana climbed to 2.73 inches Sunday while the normal rainfall by this time of year is 4.0 inches.

“We should approach normal rainfall and exceed the average if the storms continue to bring the wet stuff,” said Jim Sleeper, the county’s historian.

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 storm was blamed for three deaths in the Southland, including that of an 8-year-old Mission Viejo boy who died on his way to Sunday school.

Joshua Tsan was killed when the van he was riding in crashed about 10 a.m. at the El Toro Y, where the San Diego and Santa Ana freeways merge. The boy and two of the other seven occupants of the van were thrown from the vehicle when it skidded off the rain-slick freeway and slammed into a concrete bridge.

Tsan was pronounced dead at the scene. His mother, Kitty, who was driving, and her three young daughters were hospitalized with moderate injuries at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

The boy’s father, Moses Tsan, said the family and friends were heading to the Christian Assembly in Costa Mesa at the time of the crash. Moses Tsan, a native of Taiwan, said Joshua was a second- grader at O’Neill Elementary in Mission Viejo.

“I’m going to miss him a lot,” Tsan said. “I miss him already. He was very studious, very smart and he loved God. It’s hard to believe that he’s not here . . . that he’s not alive.”

The weather may also 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.

The rain and snowfall were expected to ease by this afternoon, with partly cloudy skies and mild winds predicted, said Stephen Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. There will be a dry period until Friday, he said, when another storm is expected to hit.

“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.

The storm, which hit late Saturday, dropped most of its rain--1.22 inches--on Sunday, pushing the Civic Center total past the 1935 record of 1.21 inches for that date.

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

In Orange County, meteorologists recorded 1 inch of rain in El Toro, 0.92 in Santa Ana, 0.84 in Anaheim, 0.74 in Newport Beach and 0.58 in San Juan Capistrano.

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.

Flooding in Orange County closed the southbound fast lane of the Santa Ana Freeway at the Riverside Freeway interchange in Fullerton early Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, county work crews cleaned large branches and uprooted trees from roadways in a half dozen locations after strong winds ripped through South County, a public works spokesman said.

But for the most part the storm was not as violent as expected, said Bill Reiter, public works operation manager for Orange County’s Environmental Management Agency, which called in about 40 workers at 9:30 a.m. in anticipation of rain-related problems when the storm arrived.

One- and two-man crews were able to clear minor mudslides and other debris from roadways in some canyon areas of North County, Reiter said.

In La Habra there was some minor flooding of intersections, but flooding was more widespread in Huntington Beach.

A Huntington Beach fire official said maintenance crews were called out after several storm drains backed up and overflowed. “There is no major damage so far,” he said. “But it’s so hectic and we’re praying for a little reprieve.”

In La Palma, police said rain caused a transformer to malfunction and plunge the western half of the city into darkness for 15 minutes at about 4 p.m. Police officers directed traffic in the rain until power was restored, Sgt. Bob Wyse said.

Motorists on Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles found the Tejon Pass 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.

Motorists on Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles also found 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 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.

A Soaking Sunday

The winter storm that doused Orange County with up to an inch of rain Sunday caused one local traffic fatality as well triggering some minor mudslides and power outages. Work crews cleaned large branches and uprooted trees from roadways in South Orange County, and flooding closed the fast lane of the Santa Ana Freeway in Fullerton. Elsewhere in the Southland, the storm was blamed for the deaths of two boaters, and it dumped more than a foot of snow in local mountains.

Storm Rainfall

The amount of rainfall as of 5 p.m. Sunday evening, in inches:

Anaheim: .84

El Toro: 1.0

Newport Beach: .74

San Juan Capistrano: .58

Santa Ana: .92

Drought Watch

Rain totals for Santa Ana, (season to date is from July 1 to Jan. 5):

Normal Season to Date: 4.00 in.

This season to date: 2.73 in.

Last Season to Date: 0.45 in.