Storm Sets a Record, Ruins Events

An unseasonal storm with record rainfall swept through Orange County on Saturday, claiming two lives in a Lake Forest traffic accident, causing havoc on roads and highways, and forcing the cancellation of major events, including the final playoff games for high school baseball and softball teams.

The chilly storm front brought 1.26 inches of rain to Santa Ana, surpassing the all-time local high for the month of June that occurred in 1883, when 0.92 inches drenched Santa Ana. The precipitation also shattered the record for the same day set in 1934, when 0.40 inches fell.

“That really clobbers the record,” said James McCutcheon, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The intensity of Saturday’s downpour was also one for the record books in downtown Los Angeles, where nearly an inch of rain fell--the most for that date since the National Weather Service began keeping records in 1887, said Bruce Entwistle, a meteorologist with the service.

In a day of collisions and fender benders, the most serious casualties occurred in Lake Forest, where two people were killed and three others injured in a three-car crash on El Toro Road near Northcrest Drive. The accident investigation caused El Toro Road to be closed for almost six hours.

“One vehicle lost control and it occurred during the rain,” said Lt. William Francis of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “We are still looking at why it lost control.”

The two fatalities, a man and a woman, were passengers in the late model Dodge Colt, the vehicle that lost control going west on El Toro Road. The male driver was listed in critical condition, and a third passenger, a female, also was hospitalized.

Francis said the two other cars were traveling in the opposite direction. The driver of a Chevy Blazer was seriously bruised and hospitalized, but the third driver in a Honda was only slightly injured, he added. Both motorists were alone.

The identities of the victims were not available late Saturday.

Meanwhile, in Long Beach, a 45-year-old construction worker was swept away in the churning Los Angeles River.

A five-man construction team from P.K.B. Construction Co. was reinforcing a bridge when a one-foot-tall wave rushing down the river slammed into them, said Sgt. Ron Speare of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Some lanes on the Hollywood and Santa Monica freeways were under as much as two feet of water by late morning. Also, six southbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway in Granada Hills were closed for about seven hours in the morning after a car rammed into a tractor-trailer rig that had jack-knifed and skidded across the roadway, according to the Highway Patrol.

The fatal accident in Orange County was one in a series of mishaps on rain-puddled roadways, including one Saturday morning incident in which a pickup truck overturned on the San Diego Freeway near Heil Avenue after a passing vehicle splashed water on the truck. The truck driver wasn’t seriously injured.

California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Linda Verwolf said accident reports from local highways swamped dispatchers beginning early Saturday morning and finally let up by late afternoon.

“It seemed like there were 82 zillion calls,” Verwolf said, estimating that actual totals were in the hundreds. “We were going from injury accident to injury accident all day long.”

Along the rain-swollen Santa Ana River in Fountain Valley, construction equipment being used in a flood control project was swept into the muddy river bed.

Tom Connealie, a county flood control manager, said Fountain Valley streets were not affected because the escaping water was going into an adjacent flood control channel.

Besides the mayhem, the rainy day had other reasons to be remembered.

Since July 1, 1992, the start of the rainfall season, Santa Ana has had 23.93 inches of rain, almost twice the seasonal norm of 12.57 inches.

“It was an unseasonably cold storm; a lot of cold air from the Gulf of Alaska . . . usually does not make it this far down this late in the spring,” said McCutcheon of WeatherData Inc. The temperature on Saturday reached only 63 degrees in Santa Ana.

McCutcheon said a gradual clearing and warming trend was expected to begin today and continue through Monday.

But the damage was done as the rain forced the postponement of the high school baseball and softball final playoff games.

Officials said the Division I baseball final match-up between Esperanza and Simi Valley was rescheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Anaheim Stadium. The Division III final game, La Quinta versus Tustin, also will be held Wednesday at Anaheim Stadium although no time has been scheduled.

The Division III girls’ softball final between Irvine and Laguna Hills will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Mayfair Park in Lakewood.

Also, the Jimmy Buffett concert at the Irvine Amphitheater was canceled.

A professional surfing contest sponsored by the Bud Surf Tour and Orange County’s Drug Abuse is Life Abuse program began early Saturday morning at Huntington State Beach even though the weather conditions were far from perfect.