Lots of Rain, More on Way : Storm Causes Power Outages, Flooded Streets

A daylong winter storm sent heavy winds and lashing rain roaring into San Diego County on Monday, causing dozens of traffic accidents and power outages and prompting a health warning to avoid beaches and bays because of soaring bacterial counts.

The storm was blamed for one death as a 14-year-old Tijuana boy was still missing late Monday after rescue crews worked for hours on Sunday to save him and his two cousins from pounding surf and rip currents near Imperial Beach.

The name of the missing boy is being withheld until relatives are notified. He was presumed drowned when the search was called off by the Coast Guard and state park officials shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, a spokesman said.

The storm that blew down trees across the county and forced numerous rescues of stranded motorists, homeowners, pedestrians and even one windsurfer was expected to abate early today, said Wally Cegiel, forecaster for the National Weather Service.

Cegiel said further clearing is expected Wednesday, but another winter storm, heading out of the Gulf of Alaska and downward through northern California, is expected to reach San Diego sometime Thursday, packing just as much punch as Monday’s front.

The snow level in San Diego mountains Monday was at 5,500 feet.

Gusty winds were expected to decrease early Tuesday. Temperatures today are expected to range from the low 40s to the high 60s in coastal and inland areas.

Monday’s rain produced heavy flooding in Chula Vista, where Broadway and Main Street were closed for hours, and in La Mesa, where lightning struck an electrical transformer and “had a TV antenna dancing on phone wires,” said a spokesman for San Diego Gas & Electric.

A funnel cloud that “rapidly retreated into the clouds” but caused no damage was sighted at 2:35 p.m. Monday at Interstate 8 near 2nd Street in El Cajon, the National Weather Service said. In March of last year, a tornado damaged several homes on Deerfield Street in San Carlos.

By late Monday, at least 16,000 homes in San Diego County had temporarily lost power, in Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, Bonita, Point Loma, La Mesa, Encinitas and Valley Center, said Fred Vaughn of SDG&E.;

Vaughn said more outages were expected throughout the evening, but officials for SDG&E; said late Monday that no area of the county was harder hit by the storm than the South Bay, and, in particular, Chula Vista.

Houses were evacuated about 5 p.m. Monday in the 500 block of Hilltop Drive in Chula Vista, and, at the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and Moss Street, the yards in front of houses were at least 2 feet under water, a spokeswoman for the city’s fire department said. Officials said the homes were in no danger of flooding, but were evacuated as a precaution.

She said crews rescued an elderly man who was walking on G Street toward his Chula Vista home Monday afternoon when he became stranded, then frightened, by the flood waters surrounding his path.

Wet streets caused many “fender-benders” throughout the county. The California Highway Patrol reported 175 traffic accidents--but no fatalities--by Monday evening. A semi truck jackknifed on Interstate 8 near Lake Murray Boulevard, triggering a nine-car pileup.

On northbound Interstate 5 near Palm Avenue in Chula Vista, flooding reduced the freeway to one lane for most of the day, police said. And rain played havoc on the seas as well, with lifeguards in Del Mar having to rescue a windsurfer who got trapped in high swells 200 yards from the shore.

The brunt of the storm, which moved through Monday morning, dropped 1.67 inches of rain at Lindbergh Field between 4 p.m. Sunday and 9 p.m. Monday, pushing the season’s total of 9.90 inches “way above normal for this time of year,” said Cegiel of the Weather Service.

Cegiel said the norm for this time of year is 6.74 inches, but heavier-than-usual rain in January and February pushed the year’s total above the annual average of 9.32 inches. Flash flood warnings for all of San Diego County remained in effect until 6 a.m. today.

Heavy rainfall also was reported Monday at Coronado (1.61 inches), Del Mar (1.38 inches), Spring Valley (1.31 inches), Chula Vista (1.29 inches), Mt. Laguna (1.27 inches), Imperial Beach (1.25 inches) and National City (1.20 inches). Readings in all North County locations were less than 1 inch.

Weather continued to have an effect on San Diego’s lingering sewage spill in which 180 million gallons of partly treated effluent have spewed into the ocean 3,150 feet from shore, at a depth of 35 feet, every day since Feb. 2.

Ruth Covill, a spokeswoman for the San Diego County Department of Health Services, said the rupture of a massive sewage outfall pipe near the Point Loma treatment plant elevated toxic bacterial counts once again Sunday, even before Monday’s rain.

Covill said such counts take 24 to 48 hours to process, thus Monday’s readings won’t be available until sometime today.

She said counts of fecal coliform bacteria well above the legal limit were recorded Sunday at the tip of the Point Loma Peninsula, at the site of the spill, at the U.S. Navy property in Point Loma and at Ladera Street near Sunset Cliffs.

Because of Sunday’s high readings and the expectation of heavy rain leading to contaminated runoff all over the county, Covill said the health department was issuing an advisory late Monday warning ocean-goers to avoid all area bays and beaches.

Covill said that the coast extending from the mouth of the San Diego River in Ocean Beach to the tip of Point Loma, a distance of about 7 1/2 miles, remains officially quarantined because of high bacterial readings.

Late Monday night, county health authorities closed beaches extending from the south end of Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach northward to the North Island Naval Air Station because of sewing flowing from the Tijuana River.

Shortly after the Coast Guard detected the Point Loma spill Feb. 2, 4 1/2 miles of area beaches were closed. The quarantine was extended to 20 miles after February storms sent an overflow of 12 million gallons a day of raw sewage from Tijuana mixing with contaminated runoff.

That episode sent bacterial readings soaring in Imperial Beach and Coronado, and, after being turned back on late last week, a binational pump station was again shut down on Monday, which authorities feared would cause yet another dramatic rise in toxic counts.

Deputy City Manager Roger Frauenfelder said Monday’s rain created no problems for repairs on the damaged outfall pipe, only because the 100-foot-by-300-foot barge working to fix it was scheduled to be docked most of the week anyway.

Frauenfelder said the refitting of new pipe is being done “harbor-side” and is expected to take four days. He said storms later in the week could force further delays similar to those that stopped repairs early last month.

Frauenfelder said he remains optimistic that the pipe can be fully repaired by April 4, as scheduled.