Rain Causes No Problems in Burned-Out Areas : Regeneration: Benefits expected in reseeded Laguna Beach areas. Erosion-control measures hold up well.

The storm that passed over Orange County early Tuesday jangled nerves in this fire-scorched city where fear of flooding and mudslides runs high, but there was no damage reported from the latest rainfall.

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With hay bales, ground coverings, silt fences and hundreds of thousands of sandbags strategically placed along roads and on burned hillsides, city officials said, the rainfall of one-third to one-half an inch may have done more good than harm by showering newly reseeded areas.

“Overall we did fine, no problems,” said Municipal Services Director Terry Brandt, who roamed Laguna Beach with two other city workers starting at 3 a.m. to make sure recently installed erosion-control measures were doing the job. “It was a light rain. It was the type of rain we like to see, actually. . . . It’ll help all our seeds germinate and take off.”

The Anaheim Hills area, which was also damaged by fire in October, suffered no problems from the rain, said Steve Magliocco, division chief of the Anaheim Fire Department. Anaheim reported 0.49 of an inch of rain.

But in Laguna Beach, where a Nov. 11 storm unleashed mudslides and flooding that damaged two dozen homes, Tuesday’s rain was enough to worry some residents out of their warm beds.

In Canyon Acres, where the last storm washed cars down Canyon Acres Drive, neighbors crept from their homes in early-morning darkness to watch warily for similar problems or to toss more sandbags on the piles in their front yards. By daylight, there was relief.

“It was uneventful compared to the other time,” said Jenifer Burge. “Everything seemed to hold. The streets didn’t flow like they did last time. And the hills (where reseeding is taking place) are still green.”

Burge’s neighbor, Marcia Klass, said she ventured outside at 2:30 a.m. to “check things out” but found no problems, only “a nice, light but steady rain.”

While the latest rainfall was not heavy or steady enough to seriously challenge the erosion-control measures put in place here by city, county and California Conservation Corps workers over the last few weeks, Brandt said he is satisfied so far with the city’s hillside stabilization plan.

“We feel good about it,” he said. “For the most part, everything held in place and did what it was supposed to do.”

National Weather Service spokesman Clay Morgan described the storm as a cold front from the Pacific Ocean. It was not cold enough, however, to drop snow levels below 7,000 feet, he said. No further rain is expected in the area at least through Thursday, meteorologists said, and mild Santa Ana winds of up to 25 m.p.h. are expected beginning this morning and lasting through Friday.

“They’ll be somewhat weaker than the (60-m.p.h.) winds that caused the fires,” said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with Weatherdata Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Since almost immediately after the Oct. 27 fire that burned 366 homes in Laguna Beach, residents have worried aloud that any significant rainfall would further erode burned-out hillsides stripped of their natural vegetation.

To address that concern, federal, state, county and local officials launched a $2.1-million restoration project last week by spreading seed from huge buckets in and around Laguna Beach. Some experts say that such seeding can cause ground cover to take hold more quickly than it would if allowed to grow naturally. Environmentalists, however, have countered that it is unwise to preempt nature.

Beyond that debate, some residents seemed pleased Tuesday morning to see that the rainfall had not washed away the unnatural blue-green tint of reseeded hillsides. Others pointed out that nature was doing its part to protect the hills from further rains.

Fire Capt. Bing Boka pointed to a bright green patch on a hillside along Laguna Canyon Road where new grass was sprouting naturally.

“Mother Nature,” Boka said, “I love it.”

Correspondent Terry Spencer contributed to this report.