Train Commuters Stalled by Storm

More than a thousand train commuters were tripped up by the storm Wednesday, as rains flooded a section of track on the Amtrak route between San Diego and Los Angeles.

Flooding south of Santa Ana submerged a trestle about 3 p.m., shutting down Amtrak service between stations in Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano, said John Brogdon, a ticket agent at Union Station in San Diego.

Passengers on the 2:45 p.m. train from Los Angeles were the first to be delayed, by about an hour and a half, Brogdon said. After taking buses to bypass the flood, they reboarded a train in San Juan Capistrano and continued to the San Diego station, arriving at 7 p.m.

Passengers heading north from San Diego went through the same drill, in reverse--if they chose to take the train at all, Brogdon said.

Mary Ryan, a nurse on vacation from London, waited at Union Station on Wednesday night for a train back to her cousin’s home in Los Angeles. Departure delays were running about 30 minutes.

She and a friend arrived in California on Saturday, and they have already seen heavier rain here than in their native England this winter, Ryan said. “We came out to sunny California with all of our summer clothes. We were expecting to get a tan.”

Ken Fuchs, a high school German teacher visiting San Diego from Temple, Tex., tried to go with a friend to Los Angeles, but turned back after the train was blocked at San Juan Capistrano. “We chickened out,” Fuchs said. “It wasn’t clear if the buses were going to make it. There were no guarantees.”

Ten scheduled trains were affected by the flood, including two heavily booked commuter carriers, said Tom Gambrel, an Amtrak supervisor in Los Angeles.

The California Highway Patrol reported three major injury accidents Wednesday night on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton. Details were sketchy late Wednesday. Earlier in the day, heavy rain and fog limited visibility to 35 feet about 4 p.m., setting off a chain of less serious accidents between Oceanside and the Orange County line, said CHP dispatcher Kim Hastings.

San Diegans can expect more rain and strong gusty winds through this morning as a series of winter storms is scheduled to continue to drench the city off and on through Saturday.

An overnight storm Wednesday was expected to dump up to an inch and a half of rain on San Diego by early this morning, said Wilbur Shigehara of the National Weather Service in San Diego.

Wednesday’s rains hit North County the hardest, with Fallbrook receiving nearly an inch of rain in an hour, Shigehara said.

“These rains we are having are a signature of El Nino, which means we have some very strong, high-level winds passing through Southern California,” he said.

Showers in the county are expected to decrease through today, but not before leaving another half-inch of rain behind, Shigehara said.

A wind advisory was put into effect, as gusts of up to 30 m.p.h. on Wednesday night were expected to decrease to 20 m.p.h. through today, Shigehara said.

Temperatures throughout the rest of the week will range from highs in the 60s to mountain lows in the 20s over the weekend, Shigehara said. Heavy surf warnings will remain in effect through the weekend, when high tides will arrive.

Shigehara warned that rains today could cause street flooding, and he advised motorists to stay away from flooded areas.

Long-range forecasts call for little or no rain next week, he said.

This week’s rain has raised the season total to 6.48 inches, above the season average of 5.84 inches for the date. Last year at this time, San Diego had 2.31 inches, Shigehara said.