Damage From Winter Storms at $60 Million

Skies started to clear and cleanup work resumed in earnest Tuesday after the latest in a series of powerful winter storms wreaked havoc in Southern California.

In many areas--particularly in the narrow canyons below the rain-drenched slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains--it was largely a job of shoveling out mud that had been oozing downhill for a few days, engulfing cars, swamping yards and burying basements.

Though some cleanup began Monday afternoon, officials in Los Angeles said more than 20 streets in and below the canyons remained partially or completely closed Tuesday because of mudslides and storm damage. They said it would take at least another day to fill a 4,000-cubic-foot sinkhole that opened early Monday on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood.

No precise figures were available, but officials said floodwaters and mudslides caused at least $60 million in damage throughout the state this winter.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday added the cities of Los Angeles, Culver City and Fillmore and the counties of Santa Barbara, Napa and Humboldt to the growing list of areas selected for special assistance because of damage from the storms.

His state of emergency declaration will allow homeowners who have suffered property damage to apply for low-interest loans through the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

The governor’s action also paves the way for a presidential disaster designation that would make federal assistance available.

Fourteen disaster-assistance centers opened in the state Tuesday, including offices in Anaheim, El Cajon, Fallbrook, Hesperia, Norco, San Diego and Temecula. Applicants were urged to call (800) 462-9029 for additional information.

Runoff from the heavy rain and melting snow caused Little Rock Creek to overflow in the Palmdale area Tuesday, threatening a market, six houses and a mobile home park before emergency crews were able to divert the water with sandbags.

“We’ve been praying for rain, but God gave us too much,” said Gabriel Aoun, 50, owner of Gabe’s Country Store. Floodwaters invaded the parking lot of the store and passed near two homes behind the structure.

Work crews from the California Department of Corrections camp at Acton sandbagged along the channel, and two bulldozers were used to reinforce the creek’s earthen banks.

Twelve miles to the southwest, in Acton, Caltrans crews reopened a section of Crown Valley Road that had been blocked Monday by a mudslide.

Another 0.3 of an inch of rain fell at the Los Angeles Civic Center before the latest storm began moving out to the east early Tuesday, raising the season’s downtown total to 19.82 inches. The normal seasonal total for the date is 8.83 inches.

Dean Jones, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said skies should be partly cloudy today, Thursday and Friday as a small ripple of unstable air continues to scatter light rain and snow showers across the northern part of the state.

“On Saturday, there will be increasing clouds and a slight chance of rain in Los Angeles from a weak weather system moving in from north of Hawaii,” Jones said. “It’s nothing major, nothing like the last one.”

He said there will be a slight warming trend over the next few days, with high temperatures in the Los Angeles Basin rising gradually from the mid-60s to the upper 60s and low 70s. Tuesday’s high at the Civic Center was 54 degrees, after an overnight low of 50.

Times staff writer John Chandler contributed to this story.