O.C. Lashed by Powerful Rainstorm : Weather: Up to four inches of rain floods freeways, turning both rush hours into a commuter’s nightmare. Tornadoes strike Anaheim and Westminster.

A torrential rainstorm swept through Southern California on Monday, flooding homes and highways, derailing a train over a freeway, spawning tornadoes that flipped cars and shifted mobile homes and killing at least one person.

Rain pounded Orange County throughout the day, with the wettest spot being Huntington Beach, which recorded 4.21 inches from 8 a.m. Sunday through 4 p.m. Monday, according to the Orange County Environmental Management Agency. Only Laguna Beach got less than 2 inches. An average of three inches fell from Cypress to San Juan Capistrano.

All day, commuters throughout the county endured a nightmare.

“I started on the (Costa Mesa) freeway at seven this morning and I was on the freeway for four hours,” said a frustrated Ed Duarte, 37, of Fullerton, who got off at Fourth Street to call his boss and explain why he wasn’t going to be at work.

“My knees hurt, my back hurts, but other than that, I think I’m alive,” Duarte said. “It’s one of the worst days I’ve seen in a long time. A lot of the cars broke down and people were walking on the freeway.”

Morning and evening commuter traffic moved at a snail’s pace if it moved at all, and thousands of drivers backed up for miles when flooding forced the California Highway Patrol to close the Costa Mesa Freeway at its junction with the Santa Ana Freeway. The northbound lanes of the Santa Ana Freeway also were closed near Jamboree Road because of flooding.

The freeways and the interchange all were reopened by Monday night.

In Gardena, a washout derailed a train on an overpass above the Harbor Freeway, leaving four rail cars dangling over freeway lanes and halting traffic in both directions. Police said the freeway could remain closed this morning.

Tornadoes were reported in Anaheim and Westminster, where mobile homes were ripped from their foundations. A waterspout was spotted off the coast near San Diego.

Rising floodwaters seeped into celebrities’ homes in the Malibu area and forced the closure of roads behind Sepulveda Dam. Heavy surf generated by the storm pounded beaches from Point Conception south to the Mexican border, with occasional 10-foot waves reported.

The steady rains forced Disneyland to close for the first time since a storm shut it down in 1987.

Heavy snow was reported throughout the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, and chains or snow tires were required on most roads above 4,000 feet.

Forecasters said the rough weather should move out to the east by early this morning , but another powerful storm is expected to hit Southern California by late Thursday.

“The next storm certainly looks sizable, but it’s still too far away to compare with the monster we got today,” said Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

In Westminster Monday, a tornado struck Summerset Mobile Estates, uprooting trees, slicing off roofs, knocking three mobile homes off their foundations and damaging many others. Authorities estimated damage at $500,000.

Inside the park, a 50-foot palm tree, sheared in half, fell over and smashed a car owned by Robert White. A heavy chain saw, lifted by the tornado out of a nearby storage shed, landed on White’s roof, he said.

Bill Searcy, 77, said he was in the bathroom when the storm hit.

“I was sitting on the toilet, and (the tornado) actually picked up the mobile home and moved it four feet, pushed up the plumbing and threw me into space, really.”

In Anaheim, a tornado touched down at about 8:30 a.m. in an industrial area in the 1200 block of Jefferson Street. Witnesses said the funnel cloud moved down the street, lifting trash cans and debris and tearing skylights off a roof.

“It was about half the width of the street, and it went down the left side of the street pulling up all the water from the gutters,” said Bob Adams, service manager at Mission Uniform and Linen Service in Anaheim. “I saw trash cans and tree limbs going in circles 300 or 400 feet up in the air.” A car was flipped onto another, but no injuries were reported.

One person was killed in Los Angeles County during the storm. Dawn Marie Vanden-Broeder, 20, of Canoga Park, a kindergarten teacher at Pepperdine University, died when she swerved to avoid rocks that had tumbled onto Malibu Canyon Road in Malibu and crashed head-on into an oncoming truck, officers said.

An injury accident on slippery pavement shut down eastbound traffic on the Pomona Freeway at Azusa Avenue Monday morning for more than an hour, and a crash involving as many as 20 vehicles on the northbound Long Beach Freeway at Florence Avenue backed up evening commuter traffic for six miles.

Caltrans spokesman Steven Saville said other temporary closures included the northbound lanes of the Santa Ana Freeway at Jamboree Road in Tustin. Pacific Coast Highway from Sunset Beach near Warner Avenue to Golden West Street in Huntington Beach also was closed by flooding.

To the north, in the City of Commerce, traffic in both directions on the Santa Ana Freeway was blocked by underpass flooding for about 7 hours. Flooding shut down all traffic on the Long Beach Freeway at Slauson Avenue for about 8 1/2 hours.

At about 1 p.m., a Southern Pacific railroad freight train derailed over the Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles’ Harbor-Gateway Strip, forcing the closure of the freeway in both directions through the evening rush hour until the railway cars could be removed.

Mike Irvine, director of field operations for Southern Pacific, said the derailment was caused when tons of gravel and dirt gave way beneath a 25-foot span of railroad tracks just east of the 149th Street bridge. About 300 tons of replacement gravel was being hauled to the site late Monday night to reinforce the eroded section, he said.

Los Angeles fire officials said the dirt beneath the tracks was swept away--much of it cascading onto the northbound Harbor Freeway--by a gush of water from nearby Figueroa Street. Fire crews erected barricades of sand and railroad ties to divert the flow of storm water back to the roadway.

“The tracks were acting like a funnel for the water,” said Fire Department spokesman Phil Weireter.

Caltrans engineers found no structural damage to the bridge, but authorities were being cautious because one of the derailed cars contained an estimated 160,000 pounds of sodium hydroxide, a hazardous corrosive chemical that becomes extremely dangerous when mixed with water. None of the material, also known as lye, leaked from the tanker car, but the chemical was to be drained into trucks early this morning before the derailed cars would be removed by 100-foot cranes.

In parts of South County, reports of creek overflows and mudslides kept work crews working feverishly. By midday, normally placid Aliso Creek in Aliso/Wood Canyon Regional Park had turned into a “50-foot raging river,” said park groundskeeper George Smith.

Flooding of surrounding streets and freeways forced Disneyland officials to close the park.

In Buena Park, Knott’s Berry Farm also was closed after several of the park’s rides became rain-soaked. Both were expected to reopen today.

In Seal Beach, a 30-year-old man was cited for jet-skiing down flooded Electric Avenue and causing water to seep into several residences and businesses, said a Seal Beach Police official.

“A group of vigilantes armed with rakes and brooms were about to confront him when we got there,” watch commander Dean Zanone said.

The jet-skier was cited for “failure to obey warning devices,” a never-before used vehicle code in Seal Beach, Zanone said.

Earlier in the day, Seal Beach resident Tere Hemond said streets had flooded up to the hood of her car.

Hemond, an apartment manager, said her bottom-floor apartments were flooded.

“I had one tenant who woke up Monday morning, got out of his bed and stuck out his foot only to hit water. He didn’t know about the flooding,” Hemond said.

On Monday evening, emergency workers responded en masse to a call from a car phone that someone may have fallen into the Santa Ana River.

Firefighters in wet suits from three cities, backed by rescue workers from three cities and a helicopter, watched a stretch of the river from 5:30 to 6 p.m. before giving it up as a false alarm.

But in La Mirada, a teen-age girl was pulled uninjured from La Mirada Creek after the waterway’s rain-swollen waters swept her off of a pedestrian bridge, security officers at Biola University said.

Bill Reiter, a public works manager for Orange County who was in charge of a storm center set up Monday, said extensive cleanup may be needed as the first major storm of the season washed loads of debris onto roads and bridges and into flood channels. Inmates at the Theo Lacy Branch Jail and county employees will start the cleanup once rains subside.

As a measure of the storm’s intensity, Anaheim got almost an inch of rain in a one hour Monday morning, Dittmann said.

Preliminary data shows 2.72 inches of rain fell in Santa Ana from 8 a.m. Sunday to 4 p.m. Monday, bringing the season total there to 4.06 inches. The average rainfall through that date is 2.45 inches.

In the exclusive Malibu Colony, Malibu Creek overflowed and water began washing against the back of some expensive beachfront homes belonging to several celebrities, including tennis star John McEnroe and actor Larry Hagman.

“This is Lake Malibu,” Hagman said as he stood in his garage, watching the water lapping around the wheels of his Rolls-Royce.

Local residents used sandbags stockpiled at Los Angeles County fire stations to build barriers to hold back the floodwaters.

In Long Beach, the rain flooded and underground parking garage, soaking more than 30 cars. Tidal surges eroded some of the beachfront, and some boats sustained minor damage when they were knocked about in their moorings.

In the San Gabriel, San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains, heavy snow prompted the National Weather service to issue winter storm warnings. Big Bear Lake reported up to 14 inches of new snow by nightfall, with the snow still falling.

Contributing to this report were staff writers David Avila, Marla Cone, Eric Lichtblau and Jeff Perlman, with correspondents Bob Barker, Bob Elston, Jon Nalick and Terry Spencer.

* RELATED STORIES, PHOTOS: A20-21, B1

Traffic Trouble Spots

The Harbor Freeway in Los Angeles County between Rosecrans Avenue and Redondo Boulevard was closed because of a train derailment and may not reopen before rush hour.

Southbound Costa Mesa Freeway’s connector lanes to the southbound Santa Ana Freeway in Orange County were closed by flooding but were reopened late Monday.

Pacific Coast Highway, closed by high water between Golden West Street and Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach, may still be closed this morning.

Travel Tips

Freeway and street flooding that occurred Monday could still pose problems during this morning’s rush hour. Problem areas to avoid include:

The Santa Ana Freeway-Costa Mesa Freeway interchange, the nation’s ninth-most-traveled, which is under reconstruction.

The ramps from Beach Boulevard, Culver Drive, Jamboree Road and Newport Boulevard to the northbound Santa Ana Freeway, as well as the southbound off-ramp at Grand Avenue.

Pacific Coast Highway from Golden West Street to Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach.

The southbound Costa Mesa Freeway ramps at Fair Drive and Fairview Road.

The Euclid Avenue off-ramp from the northbound Riverside Freeway.

Carbon Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway below any bluffs, such as those along Laguna Canyon Road and in South County. Use the San Diego Freeway as an alternate to the Santa Ana Freeway and Pacific Coast Highway.

Caltrans advises allowing an extra 30 to 45 minutes to reach destinations that are usually only 30 minutes away.

Source: California Department of Transportation

Road and Ramp Closures

Monday’s storm dumped more than four inches of rain in parts of Orange County, causing floods that closed a major freeway interchange and several roads. High winds also caused damage.

Road closures:

Costa Mesa/Santa Ana Freeway interchange

Costa Mesa Freeway northbound, from McFadden Avenue to Santa Ana Freeway

Pacific Coast Highway, from Golden West Street to Warner Avenue

Ellis Avenue, between Gothard and Delaware streets, partially closed

Santa Ana Freeway northbound at Jamboree Road

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Ramp closures:

Costa Mesa Freeway southbound, from Garden Grove Freeway to McFadden Avenue

Santa Ana Freeway ramps at Beach Boulevard

Santa Ana Freeway northbound ramps at Culver Drive

Santa Ana Freeway northbound ramps at Jamboree Road

Santa Ana Freeway northbound ramps at Newport Boulevard

Santa Ana Freeway southbound Grand Avenue off-ramp

Costa Mesa Freeway southbound ramps at Fair Drive

Costa Mesa Freeway southbound ramps at Fairview Road

Riverside Freeway northbound off-ramp to Euclid Avenue

Tornado-like winds caused at least $500,000 damage.

Westminster: Summerset Mobile Estates, 9200 Westminster Blvd.

Anaheim: 1200 Jefferson Ave.

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O.C. Storm Totals / In inches, from 8 a.m. Sunday to 4 p.m. Monday: Anaheim: 3.62 Brea: 3.74 Corona del Mar: 2.24 Costa Mesa: 2.40 Cypress: 3.35 Fullerton: 4.17 Garden Grove: 3.43 Huntington Beach: 4.21 Irvine: 2.40 Laguna Beach: 1.46 Lake Forest: 2.40 Mission Viejo: 3.23 Modjeska Canyon: 2.36 Santa Ana: 2.72 San Juan Capistrano: 3.01 Santiago Peak: 4.17 Villa Park: 2.44 Westminster: 2.36 Yorba Linda: 2.91 *

Year-to-Date Rain / Santa Ana readings in inches, as of 4 p.m. Monday, for rain season beginning July 1: Average: 2.45 This year: 4.06 Last year: 0.54 *

Why Streets Flood

During heavy rain, the amount of water may overwhelm the drainage system at various points and cause street flooding.

On the street: Some streets lack drains. Others may have settled, allowing water to pool. Some streets are designed to hold water until storm drains are clear.

Clogged drains: Storm drains may be too small to handle a lot of rain in a short time, causing water to back up onto streets.

Lack of pumping power: Pumps may not be able to move water fast enough from storm drains into drainage channels.

Channels full: Some drainage channels have flaps covering storm drain outlets. Water in storm drains cannot force open the flaps if the channel is too full of water.

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Weather Forecast Tuesday: Partly cloudy, breezy Wednesday: Partly cloudy Thursday: Increasing cloudiness, chance of showers in afternoon, rain likely at night Friday: Rain, chance of thunderstorms Saturday: Possible clearing Sources: Caltrans; California Highway Patrol; Orange County Environmental Management Agency; Huntington Beach City Engineer Robert Eichblatt; WeatherData

Researched By DANNY SULLIVAN, DAVID REYES and DAVID AVILA / Los Angeles Times