Rain Swamps Roads; at Least 1 Driver Dies

The powerful storm that drenched Los Angeles with heavy rain on Sunday and Monday turned some San Fernando Valley streets into rivers and hillside commuter thoroughfares into muddy, mucky traffic traps.

At least one man was killed in a weather-related traffic crash, and rescue workers searched the Los Angeles River near Burbank for an unidentified man in his mid-20s.

A Caltrans employee said he spotted the man being carried down the river at about 1:15 p.m. near the Forest Lawn Drive exit of the Ventura Freeway, said Clark Pearson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department. County fire department helicopter crews and water rescue teams called off a search at about 3:30 p.m. because they had found no clues to his disappearance, Pearson said.

A 26-year-old Long Beach man, whose identity was not immediately released, was killed Sunday when his car crashed during heavy rains, authorities said. The man was driving south on the northbound side of the Golden State Freeway about a mile south of Gorman about 8 p.m. He struck a center divider guardrail head-on at about 70 m.p.h., California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Ehly said.

CHP officials said it was one of dozens of crashes on roadways in the San Fernando, Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys--some of them serious.

“We’re having four times as many accidents as on a normal day; a lot of chain reactions where we end up with five or six cars in a crash,” said CHP spokesman Officer Al Michel. “Every time it rains, this happens.”

The rains provided floods, a few minor mudslides and even hail. An area around Lake Street in Burbank turned into a lake, forcing tow truck drivers Chris Girard and Jess Huizar to don wet suits Sunday night before retrieving floating cars near the Victory Place under-crossing.

Torrents of water and mud on Coldwater Canyon Drive and the other hillside thoroughfares stacked up rush-hour traffic in the morning and again Monday night. On Coldwater Canyon, city street maintenance employees Bob Cloyd and John Sapone had to push while Traffic Officer Al Armijo tried to free a car stuck in the mud in the 3500 block. They were ultimately successful.

A large landslide rumbled down on Soledad Canyon Road west of Crown Valley Road in Acton about 7:20 p.m., blocking one lane of traffic, the CHP said. Los Angeles County road crews were clearing the road Monday night.

Sheriff’s deputies responding to one of many calls for help rescued Donald Stover, 44, of Littlerock from the rapidly rising waters of Littlerock Creek five miles south of Palmdale early Monday.

Stover was standing on the roof of his Jeep Cherokee on Mt. Emma Road near Cheseboro Road a little after 3 a.m. when he was rescued by deputies with the aid of a county snowplow that drove into the deep water after him. Stover’s car was swept into the creek shortly after he was rescued.

In Sun Valley, Jang Wonchang had to be rescued from his stranded van by Los Angeles City firefighters at the intersection of San Fernando Road and Tuxford Street.

Staff writer Alicia Di Rado and correspondent Blaine Halley contributed to this story.

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