Rains Do Little Harm to Disaster-Weary Laguna : Weather: Winter storm leaves plenty of moisture, but sandbags and erosion-control measures do their job.

A fast-moving winter storm swept through this disaster-weary community Saturday, damaging one house, prompting evacuations and forcing the temporary closure of Laguna Canyon Road, but leaving officials and residents alike heaving a collective sigh of relief.

Authorities said there were no reports of injuries or significant damage from the brief but intense storm, which drenched Christmas shoppers and jangled nerves as it dropped almost half an inch of rain in about 90 minutes.

“It looks like we’re going to be all right this time,” said Laguna Beach Fire Department spokesman Patrick Brennan.

The wind-driven Alaskan storm had stirred fears that it would trigger major slides on hillsides left barren since the Oct. 27 fire but, mercifully, failed to live up to expectations.

“This storm was sopping wet and stronger than heck, but it didn’t last very long,” said meteorologist Clay Morgan of the National Weather Service. Sunny skies and warmer temperatures are expected to return to the area by this afternoon, Morgan said.

As the storm headed east late Saturday, Laguna Beach officials and residents were cheering the apparent success of deflector dams, sandbags and other erosion-control measures taken by the city in preventing greater damage from mudslides.

Before the heaviest rain began about 1:30 p.m., firefighters used police bullhorns to call on residents to leave an especially flood-prone area of about 460 homes in Canyon Acres, one of the neighborhoods hardest hit in the recent brush fire. But the water, which lapped at the top of recently cut erosion canals, entered no homes there, authorities said.

At mid-afternoon, the American Red Cross set up an evacuation center at Laguna Beach High School, but fewer than a dozen residents stopped in, mostly “to see that we were there and ready,” spokeswoman Judy Iannaccone said. “Nobody actually stayed.”

Laguna Canyon Road, the city’s main artery north to the San Diego Freeway, was closed at 3 p.m., after about two feet of muddy, debris-laden water washed across at Gunderson Drive, Brennan said. City workers cleared enough silt to reopen the southern section of the road late Saturday, from El Toro to Coast Highway, but the northern portion remained closed.

The only structure reported flooded Saturday was a rooming house at the base of the canyon on Park Avenue, which also suffered water damage in the season’s first flood on Nov. 12.

That day, two weeks after the fire destroyed 366 houses and left the slopes bare, a pre-dawn torrent of water swept through about 25 houses, carrying away cars and forcing dozens of residents to flee.

In contrast, on Saturday, a few inches of water invaded the basement at 948 Park, then quickly subsided, said Jonathan Davis, 48, who rents a room on the third floor of the building.

“It comes down the hill from the back area by our pool, then it goes through the basement, then out through the garage and down the driveway,” Davis said. The carpet and furniture was left sodden, he said, but there appeared to be relatively minor damage.

The storm was certainly enough to rattle nerves, however, including Davis’. At one point, as the rain thundered on the roof, the church gardener said he gathered medicine for his diabetes, vitamins, clothes and his address book and carried them to his car in case he needed to make a quick exit. But the rain slackened and he decided not to evacuate.

Bill Martinez, a city maintenance worker, said he had labored until 11 p.m. the previous night filling sandbags to protect his Laguna Canyon Road home, but said the effort was worth it.

“This was for my peace of mind,” Martinez said.

At the height of the storm, a river of mud washed down the street past Victoria Sepulveda’s home on Canyon Acres Drive.

“There were rocks and logs washing down and about a foot of mud,” said Sepulveda, 46. But she said the flood paled in comparison to the one in November. “That time we had cars going by.”

Soon after the rain subsided to sprinkles, Glomstad Lane resident Robert Carey, 42, toured his neighborhood to check on how the sandbags and hay bales put up for protection had held.

Carey said police had cruised his street earlier, using public address systems to warn residents to evacuate, something he said brought back memories of the fire.

“We fought hard to keep our house and our neighbor’s house from going up,” he said. “Laguna Beach has already been through so much, but this rain turned out pretty good. It’ll help the reseeding. I hope they’re all like this one.”

Brennan said the city’s erosion-control program, which began soon after the fire, appeared to have played a significant role in helping to lessen the damage. City workers have worked long hours building dams to deflect the water flow toward storm drains and away from houses, sandbagging streets and placing tarpaulins across the scorched hillsides.

In November, “we only had about 10% of the erosion-control project in place, and now we’ve got it about 50% complete,” he said, from the Fire Department’s command post in Canyon Acres. “We’re starting to see a benefit from that.”

Brennan said all 34 able-bodied firefighters on the force were on duty during the storm.

By 3 p.m., rainfall ranging from one-fourth to half an inch had fallen in many areas of the Los Angeles Basin, and half an inch to 1 1/2 inches had fallen along the coastal mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

In fire-ravaged Malibu, where residents had prepared by piling thousands of sandbags around their homes, rocks and mud slid onto the side of Pacific Coast Highway. On Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, heavy rains pushed water over the sidewalk, forcing store managers to block their doors with sandbags.

The rains led to freeway tie-ups across Southern California.

Police in Orange County reported few major problems, but complained about the increase in accidents and traffic snarls.

“The road is slick and people keep sliding into each other,” said Sgt. Bob Baumgardner of the Costa Mesa Police Department.

“People forget how to drive in the rain and they’re not paying attention,” said Sgt. Larry Bandy of the Cypress Police Department.

At a Christmas tree lot in South Laguna Beach, meanwhile, a vendor lamented late Saturday that the rain had dampened sales, along with spirits.

“This is supposed to be the busiest day of the year, but instead it was kind of sporadic,” said Jennifer Hollis of Hawkins Christmas Trees on Coast Highway. “Early in the morning, it was busy. People were running in and out of here in shorts. But when the rain came, it emptied out.”

Times staff writers Len Hall, Rene Lynch and Anna Cekola contributed to this report.