Boy Swept Away in Flood Channel

A 12-year-old boy was missing late Thursday after he and a friend tried to launch a canoe into a rain-swollen flood-control channel near downtown San Diego and were swept into the current, authorities said.

As the first of three storms dropped more than a third of an inch of rain on San Diego, close to 100 law enforcement officials gathered by the banks of Chollas Creek about 6 p.m. after reports that two boys had fallen in while playing in the 500 block of South Gregory Street in Logan Heights.

Authorities plucked a 13-year-old boy from the swift-moving current. Late Thursday, police crisis-intervention volunteers were still searching for the other boy.

At times during the night, they were joined by San Diego lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard, the San Diego Fire Department and other agencies. At least one helicopter with a spotlight flew overhead.

The older boy was taken to Paradise Valley Hospital and was in satisfactory condition, police said. The identities of the boys were not immediately known.

The drainage channel winds throughout downtown San Diego and empties into San Diego Bay. Thursday’s storm was said to be the mildest of two more to follow in the next few days.

“This first storm will weaken today, and the showers will decrease,” said Wilbur Shigehara of the National Weather Service in San Diego.

By late this evening, the showers will cease and the winds will die down, he said, but before the storm leaves, it should deposit up to a total of an inch of rain in the coastal area, more than an inch in the inland areas and up to 3 inches in the mountains, Shigehara said.

Highs today will be in the 60s throughout the county.

Saturday’s temperatures should be near 70 degrees with partly sunny skies, Shigehara said.

There will be no rain Saturday, Shigehara said, but the respite will be brief.

On Sunday, the second storm is expected to move in, pelting San Diego with heavy rain through Tuesday. Up to an inch and a half of rain is expected in coastal areas and up to 3 inches in the mountains.

The high Sunday will drop to the 60s throughout the county. Gusty winds of up to 30 m.p.h. are expected as well, Shigehara said.

The third storm is scheduled to arrive in San Diego late next week and is expected to bring at least as much rain as the second storm, he said.

The storms will have virtually no impact on the drought, officials said. Rain in Southern California is fine for farms and lawns, but the reservoirs supplying most of the area’s water are in the north, they said.

“Everything depends on what happens in the north,” said Lee Gottlieb, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District. “We would need a tremendous amount of consistent rain in order to pull us out of what looks like a severe sixth year of the drought.”

Just to get back to average rainfall levels, California would need “a good storm every weekend for about two months,” said Dick Wagner, a senior analyst in the state Department of Water Resources’ Drought Center.

Thursday’s winter rains caused more than 120 accidents in San Diego County, the California Highway Patrol said.

The storm played a grim role in the traffic deaths of two San Diegans on Thursday. In addition, there were roughly 100 fender-benders and about 20 minor injury accidents, CHP spokesman John Marinez said.

In response to the overwhelming number of accidents, the highway patrol issued a traffic advisory: Slow down and be careful of the slippery freeways.

Mayhem from the rain wasn’t confined to the highways, however.

All told on Thursday, more than 30,000 of SDG&E;’s 1.1 million customers had power outages, caused mostly by blown transformers, according to company spokesman Dave Kusumoto.

Most of the outages occurred in the areas of South Bay, Lake Murray, Otay Mesa and East San Diego, but power was restored, for the most part, within an hour, said Kusumoto, who noted that a lack of wind kept the numbers from climbing even higher.

At the beach, the storm clouds were all but ignored. Like dutiful mail carriers, local surfers kept to their appointed rounds.

“We got great surfing out there, even with the clouds and a little bit of rain,” said John Schooler, a lieutenant with the lifeguard service at Del Mar city beach.

“A little offshore breeze is holding up the waves, making them ‘barrel,’ keeping them very hollow,” Schooler said.

According to Schooler, there were about 30 surfers spread along the Del Mar beach enjoying the waves well into the afternoon.

Times staff writer Edward J. Boyer in Los Angeles contributed to this report.