Region Assesses Damage as Skies Clear : Disaster: Series of storms killed at least 38 in Southern California and Tijuana area.

Southern California--groggy, soggy and still said to be suffering from a drought--took advantage of fair skies Tuesday to assess damage and commence repairs after a two-week onslaught of storms that took a grim toll of life and property.

The break in the stormy weather, expected to last at least through the weekend, came amid forecasts that tempestuous weather may persist through March because of the rebirth of El Nino--the warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean that often spawns potent tropical storms.

Twenty-five homes in an affluent Anaheim Hills neighborhood were found to be damaged by slippage Tuesday, adding to the damage created by a lethal weather pattern that unleashed floodwaters, mudslides, tornadoes and lightning across the region.

The discovery of more victims--including a 14-year-old boy in Escondido who tried to bicycle across a flooded road--increased the number of confirmed deaths to eight in California and 30 in the Tijuana area.

Searches continued for people missing and feared dead. Among them are a 22-year-old Diamond Bar man who fell into the rushing Santa Clara River in the Antelope Valley and a 24-year-old Upland man hiking in the Mt. Baldy area who slipped into the current, toppled over a 20-foot waterfall and disappeared down a wash.

Although rain subsided Tuesday, property damage continued to mount. In Orange County, where three Laguna Beach homes were damaged beyond repair on Monday, an affluent Anaheim Hills neighborhood became imperiled by a slipping hillside. In addition to the 25 damaged homes, another 18 were evacuated because of impending danger.

The earth there has moved laterally and vertically over the past few days, buckling streets, cracking sidewalks and twisting at least one back-yard swimming pool.

“I don’t know what could have been done, and I don’t think any man could know what to do,” said Mike Bradshaw, who lives on Avenida de Santiago. “This hill has not moved an inch in thousands of years--now it’s moving an inch every day, and it might even move more than that tomorrow.”

Police forced Bradshaw and his next-door neighbor, who refused to comply with Monday afternoon’s evacuation request, to depart Tuesday. The city also announced that the 43 evacuated families each would be allowed to return home for an hour to collect necessities for the next three to five days.

Elsewhere, officials assessed damage that included waterlogged aircraft caught in floodwaters at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, vehicles swept down rivers, roads undermined by rushing waters and blocked by mudslides, sewage spills caused by broken lines and overloaded systems, and thousands of potholes on streets and freeways.

Nancy Hardaker, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Emergency Services, said damage from the storms could exceed $60 million.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday declared Orange, Riverside and Modoc counties disaster areas, adding them to a list that already included San Diego County and three small northern counties hit by heavy snow. The designation will free state money to help pay for damage.

The state’s storm-damage figure does not include Camp Pendleton, a federal installation where flooding from the Santa Margarita River on Monday left about 70 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in water up to four feet deep. The aircraft included several $8-million AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters.

“What a difference a day makes. The water is down and within the riverbanks,” said Master Gunnery Sgt. John Farrell, a base spokesman.

Even so, the base remained closed to all but essential personnel. Aviation crews were able to return to the airfield on Tuesday, but Farrell and other officials were uncertain about the extent of damage to the airfield, aircraft and rest of the base.

“It will be several weeks before we can put a finger on the cost,” Farrell said. “Until we can get the air station back on its feet, it will be some time before we can get a dollar figure.”

Commanders dispatched search-and-rescue teams to patrol up and down the river, looking for victims. Farrell said that base officials have received no reports of missing Marines or dependents.

Weather forecasters, meanwhile, suggested that the region should brace itself for more strong storms in the months to come. Constantine Pashos, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said “it’s entirely plausible” that the stormy effects of El Nino will be felt through March.

Pashos and Tom Murphree, a climate researcher at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, said the band of unusually warm ocean temperatures has combined with a tropical jet stream that meteorologists have dubbed the “Pineapple Express” to deliver the powerful storms. During most winters, they said, California’s storms originate in colder northern waters and don’t pack as much moisture.

Fair skies with “more clouds than sun” are expected through the weekend, said Dean Jones, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc.

Already, this January is threatening to become the wettest on record. So far this month, 11.66 inches of precipitation have fallen at the Los Angeles Civic Center. The wettest January--14.94 inches of rain in 1969--could be surpassed if a couple of strong storms hit the region, forecasters said.

For all this rainwater, California’s drought still isn’t over because Northern California reservoir levels are still below normal, said Bob Gomperz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District.

The good news, Gomperz said, is that the state is now in its best position in years to break the drought--unless a warm rain comes and melts the promising snowpack in the Sierra.

Although the rain had stopped by Tuesday, its effects were still felt. Some rivers and streams remained at dangerous levels. In Santa Monica, a mudslide in the 1300 block of Pacific Coast Highway forced the closure of northbound as well as southbound lanes leading to the California Avenue incline. Traffic was being rerouted through the city.

A waterspout was spotted two miles off the Santa Barbara County coast, not far from Summerland, President-elect Bill Clinton’s Western retreat. Funnel clouds also were spotted in Orange and San Diego counties. In Ventura County, rain damaged early strawberry, celery, broccoli and lettuce crops.

The storms are believed to have claimed about 40 lives in Southern California and the Tijuana area.

In Escondido, the body of 14-year-old Christopher Flowers was discovered shortly before midnight Saturday after a long search. He was last seen by friends about 4:15 p.m. the previous Monday when he tried to ride his bicycle through floodwaters from Reidy Creek, said Police Lt. John Wilson.

“The street was barricaded. He had to ignore the barricades,” Wilson said. “He had a camera with him, and his purpose was to take pictures of the water. When we found him, he still had the camera bag on his shoulder.”

The storm is believed to have also claimed 22-year-old Oscar Rodriguez of Diamond Bar, who friends said was swept away by the Santa Clara River in the Santa Clarita Valley community of Agua Dulce when he tried to cross it to retrieve his Jeep Wrangler.

All night and until early Tuesday afternoon, a dozen Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and volunteers searched a two-mile stretch of the wooded, rocky riverbanks in a futile search for Rodriguez, a 1988 Glendale High School graduate. Deputies called off the search late Tuesday but were expected to resume it today.

The Sheriff’s Department also temporarily called off a search for 24-year-old Mark Rubio of Upland, who had traveled up Mt. Baldy Road with a friend Monday evening to watch the torrential waterfalls. Sgt. Dave Rash of the Walnut Sheriff’s Station said Rubio slipped into the current, fell over the falls and disappeared.

Also still counted among the missing was an infant boy whose family drowned in the Temecula area after trying to ford a creek in a pickup truck.

And south of the border, mudslides in Tijuana claimed another two victims early Tuesday, bringing to 30 the number of residents killed in floods since Jan. 6. Isabel Domes Partido, 71, and her 34-year-old deaf son, Cuathemoc, died when a wall of mud and stone fell about 25 feet onto their home.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Jodi Wilgoren in Orange County, Chris Kraul in Tijuana, Jeff Prugh in Los Angeles and Stephanie Simon in Ventura County. Harris reported from Los Angeles and Reza from San Diego.