Mudslides Are Feared as Heavy Rains Flood L.A.

A powerful subtropical storm drenched Southern California on Thursday, jeopardizing motorists on flooded roads and threatening to set off mudslides that could dismember homes on already saturated hillsides.

Los Angeles City Council President John Ferraro, acting as mayor in Tom Bradley’s absence, declared a state of emergency in the city, placing public works and emergency crews on special alert. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors issued a similar declaration, paving the way for financial assistance for those whose property is damaged by the storm.

Urban and small-stream flood advisories were issued by the National Weather Service on Thursday for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Meteorologists said the potential for damage could increase as rain and thunderstorms continue off and on through Monday.

Hail the size of golf balls pelted the Westside as a series of thundershowers charged through the area shortly before nightfall, whipped by hurricane-force winds that gusted up to 93 m.p.h. at Mt. Wilson. Smaller hail was reported in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

By 4:30 p.m. Thursday, the storm had dropped 1.48 inches of rain on the Los Angeles Civic Center. Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said that by Monday up to five more inches could fall in coastal areas, and the foothills could get seven more inches.

Heavy surf--with occasional waves up to 10 feet high--was expected to pound the coast through the weekend.

A clogged storm drain overflowed in Hacienda Heights Thursday afternoon, spilling water into two homes and threatening two others.

Los Angeles County fire officials said the problem started just after noon, when debris blocked a steel grate. Fire and county jail crews piled up sandbags and dug trenches to divert the overflow, but not before two homes were flooded with about half a foot of water. Work crews using a backhoe cleared the drain by nightfall.

Beaches were closed from Topanga Canyon to Palos Verdes Estates for the fourth time in a month and a half when runoff overloaded sewer lines and dumped partially treated sewage into Santa Monica Bay. Officials said the beaches will remain closed until water samples show that bacteria counts are safe.

According to Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based environmental group, more than 30 million gallons of partially treated sewage has overflowed this year into Ballona Creek, which empties into Santa Monica Bay.

Because extensive improvements to the Hyperion Treatment Plant have not been completed, spillage occurs when storm runoff overloads the facility and sewage lines overflow.

Traffic was snarled throughout the area Thursday as floods, mudslides, stalled cars and traffic accidents on rain-slick pavement clogged freeways and surface streets.

In Newhall, a car attempting to cross Placerita Creek was swept away by rushing waters, prompting a daring rescue of the driver by a quick-thinking Los Angeles County Fire Department river rescue crew.

“The heavy rain started about 7 a.m., and things started collapsing immediately,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Ernie Garcia, a spokesman for the department. “Traffic that had been moving normally suddenly slowed to a crawl. Accidents started to mount. Traffic lanes began to flood. Things were in complete disarray.”

Chest-deep water in the McClure Tunnel shut down the Santa Monica Freeway in Santa Monica. A head-on crash that injured four people during a downpour in Pacific Palisades and mudslides there and in Malibu slowed traffic to a crawl on Pacific Coast Highway. Citing traffic problems, officials closed the J. Paul Getty Museum in Pacific Palisades for the day.

A plugged storm drain was blamed for flooding that inundated cars in subterranean parking lots in the 600 block of East Indiana Avenue in Venice.

Water up to two feet deep blocked lanes on the Long Beach, Golden State, Riverside, Ventura and Antelope Valley freeways, and the CHP said many low-lying intersections throughout the area were flooded.

A mudslide north of Sunset Boulevard closed the southbound lanes of the San Diego Freeway during the evening rush hour, and runoff cascading down canyon roads in the Santa Monica Mountains swept away parked cars, garbage cans and mailboxes.

In the San Fernando Valley, police closed streets leading into the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin, where rising runoff water trapped dozens of motorists on top of their cars last year.

But perhaps most dramatic was the rescue at Placerita Creek, which authorities believe saved the life of the stranded motorist.

Officials said the driver had been trying to cross the creek when her car was swept away. Acting quickly, a Los Angeles County Fire Department river rescue crew extended a 100-foot ladder over the woman, and a firefighter crawled out on the ladder, dangled down eight feet on a rope and tied a harness around her.

The victim and her rescuer, Engineer Frank McCarthy, 35, were then pulled to safety. McCarthy said later that he had spent more than 100 hours training for just such a rescue as part of a team based in East Los Angeles.

The woman, who asked that her name not be released, was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries and released.

Downed power lines blacked out an area that serves about 5,000 customers in Santa Barbara, and about 400 users lost electrical service in West Los Angeles. In most cases, power was restored before nightfall.

In the Anaheim Hills area of Orange County, public works crews kept close watch on homes that were evacuated after a landslide during last month’s storms. Bret Colson, a spokesman for the city of Anaheim, said it could be several days before storm damage can be assessed.

Colson said that during the past week city crews sealed cracks in streets and sidewalks to prevent water from getting into the ground and causing further slippage.

In Ventura County, runoff washed through the Casa del Norte trailer park in Camarillo.

Although water was up to three feet deep, the mobile homes, which sit on raised platforms, were not damaged and residents were allowed to stay with their property. County firefighters cleared drains and sandbagged the entrance to the park to prevent more water from rushing in.

A few blocks away, about 15 farm workers were airlifted to safety by helicopter after they were stranded in a flooded broccoli field.

“With the water rising around them, they didn’t think it was necessary to evacuate or to leave until it was too late,” said Deputy Laura Burt of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

To the north, flash-flood warnings were issued in parts of Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties as wind-swept rains lashed the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Another two feet of snow was expected by tonight in the High Sierra, the principal source of water for urban Californians. While state water officials are not yet ready to proclaim an end to the state’s prolonged drought, they do confirm that the snowpack--more than 25 feet deep in some places--is well above normal for this time of year.

On California 395 in Inyo County, the main route from Los Angeles to Reno, motorists were faced with blizzard conditions Thursday afternoon. Chains were required, and traffic north of Bishop moved at less than 10 m.p.h.

The 1.48 inches of rain that fell in downtown Los Angeles by 4:30 p.m. Thursday raised the season’s total to 21.3 inches. That is considerably more than twice the normal season’s total for the date of 9.82 inches.

Other storm totals as of 4:30 p.m. Thursday included 2 inches in Woodland Hills, 1.8 inches in Culver City, 1.74 in Monrovia, 1.7 in Northridge, 1.68 in San Gabriel, 1.54 in Glendale, 1.45 in Pasadena, 0.79 of an inch in San Juan Capistrano and 0.15 in Newport Beach.

Burback said the current storm is expected to stay until early Sunday, pummeling the Southland with occasionally heavy rain and thundershowers. By Sunday afternoon, he said, another storm should arrive from the north, bringing with it more heavy rain.

“There is a lot more potential for flooding and mudslides,” he said. “There won’t really be a break in the weather until Tuesday.”

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Mathis Chazanov and Edmund Newton in Los Angeles County and Carlos V. Lozano in Ventura County.

* SEEDS OF DOUBT: The county pays rainmaking firm to stand by. A23

Southland Rain Watch

Rainfall figures for the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Thursday. Season totals and norms are based on precipitation from July 1 to date.

REGION PRECIPITATION IN INCHES 24-Hour Storm Season Season Total Total* Total Norm L.A. BASIN Avalon/Catalina 1.15 1.15 16.61 8.00 Culver City 1.80 1.80 22.11 8.56 Long Beach 0.80 0.80 18.25 8.45 L.A. Civic Center 1.48 1.48 21.30 9.82 L.A. Int’l Airport 1.09 1.09 19.93 8.06 Santa Monica 1.50 1.50 14.20 8.58 Torrance 1.72 1.72 20.16 8.99 UCLA 2.82 2.82 25.93 11.26 VALLEYS/CANYONS Northridge 1.70 1.70 10.03 NA Pasadena 1.45 1.45 25.83 12.97 San Bernardino 0.65 0.65 16.70 10.64 San Gabriel 1.68 1.68 26.91 11.30 Woodland Hills 2.00 2.00 24.52 10.77 ORANGE COUNTY Anaheim 0.46 0.46 17.82 NA Newport Beach 0.15 0.15 17.57 7.39 Santa Ana 0.53 0.53 18.87 8.44 SAN DIEGO COUNTY Del Mar 0.20 0.20 13.57 NA Oceanside 0.00 0.00 12.24 6.64 San Diego 0.43 0.43 13.86 6.49 El Cajon 0.15 0.15 12.50 8.05 Escondido 0.38 0.38 22.37 10.34 Fallbrook 1.42 1.42 31.39 7.23 SOUTHLAND MOUNTAINS Big Bear Lake 0.97 0.97 33.68 15.67 Mt. Wilson 2.05 2.05 45.18 23.04 Palomar Mtn. 0.80 0.80 59.62 17.16 DESERTS Bishop 0.00 0.00 1.41 3.95 Death Valley 0.00 0.00 1.06 1.41 Palm Springs 0.04 0.04 11.04 4.70 SANTA BARBARA/VENTURA Ojai 0.68 0.68 31.53 13.68 Oxnard 0.00 0.00 11.32 9.78 Santa Barbara 1.75 1.75 15.40 11.25 Ventura 1.72 1.72 19.35 9.20

NA indicates figures not available. In other cases, some totals may be incomplete because of missing station reports.

* Amount of rainfall since the last zero-precipitation day.

SOURCE: National Weather Service and WeatherData Inc.