Winds, Torrential Rain Blast Homes, Motorists : Weather: Small tornado rips El Sereno district as a strong storm soaks Southern California. More showers are expected next week.

Tornado-like winds ripped off roofs, lightning bolts knocked out electrical power, and drenching rain snarled freeways and prompted flash-flood watches and warnings Friday as a powerful spring storm hammered Southern California.

Fire officials said a mini-tornado carrying winds exceeding 100 m.p.h. struck a one-block strip of El Sereno Avenue just north of Huntington Drive in the El Sereno district of Los Angeles, shredding roofs, shattering windows, downing a 100-year-old oak tree and toppling a billboard onto the back of a car.

About 10 houses were damaged, but no injuries were reported. Residents described it as the most freakish weather phenomenon they had ever seen.

“It was a trip,” said Enrique Castillo, 35, a carpenter, who was warming up his car when it hit. “Talk about--what do you call it--adrenaline. I mean, all of a sudden everything just got dark, then all hell broke loose.”

Castillo said he dived under the dashboard of his car--an old Toronado--cranked up a classic rock station on the radio and held on while the twister blew through the neighborhood. A minute later, the windows of his apartment had been blown out and his 1,000-pound Harley-Davidson motorcycle had been hurled several yards.

“That’s some heavy-duty stuff,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. John White said, as he surveyed the damage. “It used to be that they had all the tornadoes and we had all the earthquakes. I guess you need a little of both to round things out.”

The twister’s first stop was the Moran Drapery Warehouse, where Gerda Laurent, 55, was sitting at her desk. The lights went out, the building started to vibrate, then the tinted-glass storefront window exploded, filling her hair with shards.

The wind lifted at least a 20-foot section of roof off the building, twisted metal support beams, left heating ducts dangling from the ceiling and threw drapes from the shelves into the rafters.

“I just hung on,” Laurent said. “If I hadn’t, I think I would be three blocks away.”

Once the tornado was gone, the rain stopped and residents stepped out of their homes to inspect the damage in an eerie calm. Some began to sweep up shingles and rake debris from their lawns, while firefighters tacked down plastic tarp on the hardest hit roofs.

Cyclonic winds also were reported in the Florence-Huntington Park area, where witnesses said a small twister hopscotched through several blocks along Raspberry and Leota streets, tearing up trees, shrubbery and power lines, battering some parked cars and damaging several roofs.

More damage from powerful, spinning winds was reported in Irvine, where employees escaped injury when a collapsing section of roof sent debris and air-conditioning units plunging into the Lucky Food Centers warehouse. The workers told authorities that the winds also tipped over two truck trailers at the rear of the warehouse and flattened a length of fence.

Nightfall came early Friday as a cold front preceding the main body of the storm moved through Los Angeles in the early afternoon, darkening the skies so much that most motorists had their headlights on by 2 p.m.

Immediately behind the front came heavy, steady rain, flooding intersections and sending water washing over sidewalks in the downtown area. More than 0.8 of an inch fell at the Los Angeles Civic Center between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., raising the season’s rainfall total to 18.31 inches, more than 5.5 inches above the normal total for the date.

It was raining even harder in eastern Ventura County and western San Fernando Valley, and the National Weather Service had issued a flash-flood watch for both areas by midafternoon.

The Army Corps of Engineers closed off the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin, where scores of motorists were trapped by floodwaters in February. The area flooded again Friday, but this time no one was caught in the rising water.

Later Friday, a flash-flood warning was issued for Orange County. Flooding was reported in the El Toro area and Laguna Beach, where water overflowed the streets and invaded several homes and shops near the downtown business district.

Lightning strikes and heavy winds attacked the Palos Verdes Peninsula, knocking out power to homes and felling tree limbs. Power failures were also reported in Pasadena, Universal City and Norwalk, where lightning started a house fire in the 12000 block of Kenney Street.

A lightning strike near the courthouse in Simi Valley disrupted live television coverage of the trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating motorist Rodney G. King.

City officials opened nine shelters for the homeless at 6 p.m. Shuttle vans were sent out to collect the homeless at churches, missions, community centers and other pickup points.

A morning pileup involving more than 100 vehicles on Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass was blamed on blinding rain and fog that reduced visibility to 20 feet in some areas of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Police said at least one person was killed and 46 were injured in the chain-reaction crash about 9:30 a.m. The pileup, which involved about two dozen big-rig trucks, a school bus and more than 100 cars, closed the southbound lanes of the freeway for several hours. With alternate routes limited to a few narrow, twisting, two-lane roads, traffic backed up for miles.

In Monrovia, a six-ton dump truck skidded on rain-slick pavement and overturned on the Foothill Freeway shortly before noon, spilling a load of gravel that blocked three of the four eastbound lanes. Traffic had to be diverted onto streets while Caltrans crews cleaned up the mess.

In an accident that occurred before the rain began to fall, two people burned to death in Lakewood when a swerving motorist cut off their car, causing it to overturn and burst into flames. A truck hauling tires overturned while trying to avoid the wreckage and it also caught fire, but the driver escaped injury.

The California Highway Patrol said thick smoke from the burning tires reduced visibility to zero, forcing closure of the freeway in both directions for more than two hours.

The rain wreaked havoc during much of the Friday evening rush hour, with delays reported on most freeways. The southbound lanes of the Harbor Freeway were flooded with about a foot of runoff about 4 p.m., but cars will still able to creep through.

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said the rain should decrease to occasional light showers by this afternoon, with partly cloudy skies expected Sunday and Monday before another strong storm hits Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

He said rainfall from the first storm should total about 1 to 2 inches in most of the metropolitan area, with up to twice that much in some coastal communities and some foothill and mountain areas. As much as a foot of snow is expected at mountain resorts above 6,000 feet.

The second storm should be as strong and a little colder than the first, he said. Rainfall amounts should be about the same, but a foot of snow is expected at some points above 5,000 feet.

Southland Rain Watch

Rainfall figures for the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Friday. 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 1.20 1.20 11.07 10.40 Culver City NA NA 11.47 12.37 Long Beach .94 .94 11.74 10.27 L.A. Civic Center 1.32 1.32 18.31 12.71 L.A. Int’l Airport .93 .93 12.00 10.40 Montebello 1.00 1.00 9.69 12.97 Santa Monica 1.20 1.20 14.39 12.07 Torrance 2.04 2.04 16.26 11.50 UCLA 1.22 1.22 18.53 15.12 VALLEYS/CANYONS Beaumont .05 .05 13.90 13.90 Monrovia .80 .80 18.75 NA Northridge 1.34 1.34 18.04 NA Pasadena 1.10 1.10 25.32 16.60 Riverside 00 00 6.84 8.15 San Bernardino .02 .02 9.45 13.13 San Gabriel 1.10 1.10 17.55 15.24 Santa Clarita 1.55 1.55 23.28 15.46 Woodland Hills 1.45 1.45 30.57 13.66 ORANGE COUNTY Newport Beach .38 .38 11.79 9.25 San Juan Cap. .28 .28 13.80 NA Santa Ana .25 .25 11.74 10.71 SAN DIEGO COUNTY Oceanside .12 .12 9.72 8.62 San Diego .27 .27 10.96 7.71 SOUTHLAND MOUNTAINS Big Bear Lake .06 .06 13.21 19.65 Mt. Wilson 1.40 1.40 41.98 28.86 DESERTS Palm Springs .03 .03 6.08 4.80 Lancaster NA NA NA 6.84 SANTA BARBARA/VENTURA Santa Barbara .40 .40 16.38 15.23 Ventura .63 .63 18.38 12.58

NA indicates figures not available. In other cases, some totals may be incomplete because of missing station reports.

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

SOURCE: National Weather Service and WeatherData Inc.