Storms Take a Break, but Forecast Calls for More Rain

After battering Southern California with driving rain and tornado-like wind bursts, a swift-moving storm front slackened off Saturday, the second day of spring, while a flooded stretch of Laguna Canyon Road remained closed to motorists and sanitation crews worked to contain a sewage spill in Los Angeles Harbor.

Dense fog lifted over the Cajon Pass, where poor visibility contributed to a 100-vehicle chain-reaction pileup that killed one woman and injured 63 others Friday. Among the injured were some of the 53 sixth-grade students whose school bus was struck by a produce truck.

In Newport Beach, which was drenched Friday with nearly two inches of gust-driven rain, lifeguards said a lingering drizzle cleared by Saturday afternoon. Marine Safety Officer Dave Wenger said many people came outdoors to enjoy the sunshine, spectacular cloud formations and a sailboat regatta.

The rain also vanished in time for a festive crowd to keep dry while watching the annual Swallows Week Parade in San Juan Capistrano.

However, rain continued sporadically until the evening in some Orange County cities farther north, such as Buena Park and Fullerton, where spectators at an air show were obliged to duck occasional showers.

“We had heavy rain and then the sun would come burning through,” said Mitch Mana, desk officer with the Fullerton Police Department.

A portion of Laguna Canyon Road between El Toro Road and the San Diego Freeway was closed to traffic Friday night because of flooding from nearby lakes. But California Highway Patrol officers said they would check the roadway at 8 this morning to see if it had dried enough to be reopened.

The Southland’s weather was expected to grow wet and blustery again, however.

A series of weak and intermittent showers were expected today in advance of a larger storm system and gusting winds that meteorologists expect to move into the region by the middle of this week.

Steve Burback, a forecaster with WeatherData Inc., said today’s rain was expected to be significantly weaker than Friday’s tempest. Clouds will predominate until late Tuesday night, when a new storm system building in the Gulf of Alaska is expected to move into Southern California, bringing widespread rain and harsh winds.

“The rain will continue into Thursday and you could get amounts of well over two inches,” he said.

At times the heavy downpour and freakish winds that racked Southern California on Friday played havoc with utility lines in the San Pedro area, cutting off electricity for 11 hours to Los Angeles’ Terminal Island Waste Water Treatment Facility. The power shortage--whose cause is unknown--froze machinery in one section of the plant, allowing 8 million gallons of partially treated sewage to flow into the harbor.

County health officials closed Inner Cabrillo Beach as a precaution and were waiting for the results of 24-hour tests to determine the degree of sewage contamination in the harbor. Terminal Island plant manager Clarence Mansell said the spill is apparently confined to the harbor and had not reached the Pacific Ocean.

In the Santa Clara River area, a rupture of a sewage line Saturday pumped from 360,000 to 400,000 gallons of raw sewage into the river, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said. Rain and road erosion were blamed for the spill, which posed no danger to residents, officials said.

To the east of Los Angeles, traffic flowed freely through a section of Interstate 15 in the San Bernardino Mountains where a chain-reaction collision Friday left 100 vehicles--tractor-trailers, buses and cars--crushed together.