Sun Gives Southland a Chance to Dry Out

Los Angeles and much of Southern California began drying out Sunday, having weathered what meteorologists called the last in a record-breaking series of storms that killed at least seven people and put emergency services to a harrowing test.

While a few scattered mudslides continued to cause detours, law enforcement officials around the region reported that most roads, while soggy, were cleared. Seemingly spent, the skies dropped only a spattering of rain and gave many residents a welcome glimpse of the sun.

Steve Burback of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the dry weather may only last until Tuesday morning, when another storm is expected to hit the California coast. Part of a warmer, tropical system hovering northeast of Hawaii, this storm will bring scattered showers, Burback predicted, but nothing to match the deluge of recent days.

“I would not call it a heavy rainer,” Burback said. “The worst is now in the past.”

In Los Angeles County, the California Highway Patrol on Sunday reported none of the flooding that had for days made many roadways treacherous. With few new problems to attend to, road crews spent the day remedying damage caused by the recent pounding rains.

In Malibu, the California Department of Transportation closed off a section of Topanga Canyon Boulevard near Pacific Coast Highway to blow up boulders on the road.

Engineers with Southern Pacific Railroad continued to repair a trestle in Ventura County that has rendered the tracks between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara unusable. Amtrak officials said that service will not resume before Tuesday.

At Mt. Baldy in San Bernardino County, more than 40 snowshoe-clad volunteers discontinued their search for two skiers who have been missing since Tuesday. John McCallum, a spokesman for the Mt. Baldy Fire Department, said that, weather permitting, helicopters will continue the search today.

About 30 miles away, CHP officials reported that a mudslide continued to block a 10-mile stretch of Highway 138 near the Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area.

In Ventura County, 20,000 cubic yards of mud and rocks slid onto Highway 150 six miles west of Ojai early Sunday, forming a six-mile barrier that officials said could take more than a week to clean up. Other than the slide, Lt. Paul Anderson of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department pronounced much of his jurisdiction “pretty dried out.”

In Orange County, many residents left the confines of their homes to enjoy the bursts of sunshine. Among them were two teen-agers who were taken into police custody after they launched a boat in the San Diego Creek channel.

In San Diego County, repair crews resumed work on San Diego’s 11,000-foot sewage outfall pipe, which had broken in several places two weeks ago. Crews dumped ballast to shore up the severed pipe, which continues to seep partially treated sewage into the ocean about half a mile offshore.

Times staff writers Carlos Lozano, Nancy Ray, George Frank and Tammerlin Drummond contributed to this report.