Storm Arrives; Another Coming

The rain that hammered much of Orange County Thursday night is expected to continue until tonight. And another storm is right behind it.

Only two hours after the rain began, up to two-thirds of an inch had fallen in areas of Orange County by 10 p.m., said Constantine Pashos, National Weather Service meteorologist.

“Heavier amounts should be expected rather shortly,” up to an inch and half, he said.

The sudden and heavy downpour caused dozens of mostly minor traffic accidents on county freeways.

“When the rain started, it got busy,” a California Highway Patrol spokesman said. “We’ve got vehicles facing the wrong way and the whole county’s a mess. It just got so busy so fast once the rain started to fall. People are just swimming out there and not doing a very good job with their driving.”

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said the new storm could arrive by Saturday evening, but it will bring less rain than today’s.

“It may be wet into early April,” he said. “I don’t see an end in sight.”

Meanwhile, cities that suffered the most damage during the series of severe winter storms were busy preparing themselves and hoping to stave off any additional disaster.

In Anaheim Hills, where a landslide damaged homes and forced the evacuation of dozens of families last January, Anaheim Fire Chief Jeff Bowman said 102 pumps are pulling 190,000 gallons of water a day out of the hillside. This storm, he said, should not pose a problem.

Bowman also said cracks that developed in the streets during the initial landslide last January have been sealed to prevent seepage. Such precautions prevented further slippage during a storm that hit the area last month.

Workers in Dana Point monitored the portion of Pacific Coast Highway, from Camino Capistrano to Palisades Drive, that has been closed indefinitely since early last month.

In Laguna Beach, where five homes were severely damaged in slides during the winter rains, plastic tarps, flexible plastic piping and hundreds of sandbags have been spread in the affected neighborhoods, Laguna Beach Fire Department Battalion Chief Joe McClure said.

In recent days on the 600 and 700 blocks of Canyon View and Buena Vista streets, the city has distributed more than 1,000 sandbags, while homeowners laid tarps and temporary drainage pipes to channel rain water into storm drains. One home on each street was rendered uninhabitable from slide damage this month, McClure said.

In San Clemente, where 14 homes have been damaged or destroyed by rain in recent months, the Fire Department has made free sandbags available to residents.