Stormy Entrance : Lightning, Thunder Mark Arrival of Rain

A Pacific storm dumped nearly an inch of rain in Los Angeles on Monday, creating an assortment of headaches--freeway accidents, road closures and minor flooding--that reminded some folks of last month’s killer rainstorms.

The rain made a spectacular entrance Sunday night as dazzling displays of lightning and thunder marked its arrival. The celestial fireworks resulted from the storm colliding with the remnants of the warm, dry Santa Ana condition preceding it.

Although the system lacked the ferocity of the last series of storms that killed eight people and caused an estimated $125 million in damages in the Southland, cloudbursts were intense enough to cause flooding.

David Lionel, 47, of Topanga was swept off a footbridge over the swollen Topanga Creek and carried 200 feet downstream Monday night before swimming to a small island, where he clung to a tree for nearly an hour. Los Angeles County Firefighter Sean McAfee said Lionel was rescued by a pulley system that pulled him to safety across the creek, where waters were rushing at speeds up to 30 m.p.h.

In the San Fernando Valley, police closed the Sepulveda Basin where motorists were stranded in the last storm, said Officer John Kocan of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division. He said the move was taken after water that was backed up behind the Sepulveda Dam threatened to flow onto streets in the flood plain behind the dam.

Under a procedure worked out after motorists were cut off by storms last month, police are responsible for closing the streets when alerted by the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Sepulveda Dam.

Burbank Boulevard was closed from Balboa Boulevard to Sepulveda Boulevard, Woodley Avenue was closed at Victory Boulevard and Hayvenhurst Avenue was closed at the Ventura Freeway, Kocan said. Police did not know how long the closures would last.

Fear of another possible river drowning prompted an intense but short-lived search near Cerritos on Monday night after a passing motorist reported glimpsing two boys with bicycles in the San Gabriel River channel. More than 100 firefighters, lifeguards, sheriff’s deputies and police officers searched the area while four helicopters, one equipped with an infrared beam for night searches, searched from above. Another rescue team launched a raft.

Ninety minutes later, the search was called off when officials decided that the report was either inaccurate or the youths had climbed out of the channel on their own. Last month, floodwaters in the Los Angeles River swept 15-year-old Adam Bischoff to his death past the outreached hands of would-be rescuers.

More rain may be on the way, forecasters said. Monday’s storm was the first of three that may move into Southern California by this weekend.

While the exact force of these approaching storms is not known, early indications showed that a storm expected to arrive Wednesday night may not be as strong as Monday’s.

“It’ll be like (Monday’s) storm but it’ll be a bit weaker,” said meteorologist Mark Bogner of WeatherData Inc., a firm that provides forecasts to The Times.

Monday’s storm also triggered heavy snowfall in Southern California mountains above 6,000 feet and a waterspout off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. At the Los Angeles Civic Center, 0.8 of an inch of rain fell by midafternoon. That brought the total rainfall since July 1 to 14.31 inches, more than three inches above normal.

Rainfall totals Monday included 1.30 inches in Van Nuys, 1.29 inches in Woodland Hills, 0.89 of an inch in Redondo Beach, 0.59 in Long Beach, 0.81 in Monrovia, 0.84 in Ventura and 0.95 in Santa Monica.

In Ventura and southern Santa Barbara counties, the precipitation was enough for the National Weather Service to announce an end to the drought in that area. In Santa Paula, 37 inches of rain fell in the last 12 months, meeting the drought-ending levels set by the weather service.

For the rest of California, however, state water officials were not willing to pronounce an end to the drought, explaining that more snow in the Sierra Nevada would be required.

Meanwhile, Southern California motorists trying to get to work in the rains were delayed by accidents that occurred in bunches.

In one of the more serious accidents, two people were slightly injured on Interstate 605 in Norwalk after two cars collided with a bus carrying third-graders from a school in Glendora. None of the children were injured. The crash tied up traffic on the freeway’s southbound lanes for nearly two hours during the morning commute.

A chain-reaction accident involving an RTD bus on the Pasadena Freeway left five bus passengers and two motorists slightly injured, a Southern California Rapid Transit District spokesman said. The southbound bus, headed for downtown Los Angeles, struck two cars that had collided and then was hit from behind near Orange Grove Boulevard in South Pasadena.

And on the San Bernardino Freeway in San Dimas, traffic was backed up for four miles because of five accidents in the westbound lanes. “What a mess,” grumbled one California Patrol Highway officer.

Meanwhile, state officials Monday announced the opening today of disaster assistance centers to help residents and businesses apply for aid as a result of last month’s storms. The centers--one located at Lancaster City Hall and the other at the North Weddington Park Community Center in North Hollywood--will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Southland Rain Watch

Rainfall figures for 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Monday. Season totals and norms are based on precipitation from July 1 to date.

REGION PRECIPITATION IN INCHES 24-Hour Storm Season Season Total Total* Total Norm L.A. BASIN Avalon/Catalina .30 .30 8.89 9.06 Culver City .71 .71 9.87 10.43 Long Beach .59 .59 9.44 9.67 L.A. Civic Center .92 .92 14.43 11.25 L.A. Int’l Airport .70 .70 9.56 9.06 Montebello NA NA 6.93 10.58 Santa Monica .95 .95 10.84 10.56 Torrance .81 .81 12.77 10.07 UCLA 1.04 1.04 15.87 13.20 VALLEYS/CANYONS Beaumont .45 .45 13.14 12.26 Monrovia .81 .81 16.30 NA Northridge .90 .90 15.00 NA Pasadena .75 .75 9.55 14.16 Riverside .46 .46 6.62 6.98 San Bernardino .44 .44 8.53 11.31 San Gabriel .64 .64 15.24 12.96 Santa Clarita 1.30 1.30 20.4 13.33 Woodland Hills 1.29 1.29 26.26 NA ORANGE COUNTY Newport Beach .87 .87 9.68 7.92 San Juan Cap. .54 .54 10.71 NA Santa Ana .52 .52 10.10 9.48 SAN DIEGO COUNTY Oceanside .78 .78 9.01 7.35 San Diego 1.51 1.51 9.73 6.74 SOUTHLAND MOUNTAINS Big Bear Lake .13 .13 13.02 17.08 Mt. Wilson 1.18 1.18 36.43 24.48 DESERTS Palm Springs .70 .70 6.05 4.40 Lancaster .73 .73 NA 5.56 SANTA BARBARA/VENTURA Santa Barbara .25 .25 15.38 13.29 Ventura .84 .84 16.80 10.72

* Amount of rainfall since the last zero-precipitation day.

SOURCE: National Weather Service and WeatherData Inc.