COUNTYWIDE : Hillsides Weather the Storm

More than a half-inch of rain fell in Orange County, including Laguna Beach, where worried firefighters and public works technicians watched the storm’s activity until the wee hours of Tuesday, authorities said.

“We only had one small hill slippage,” said Laguna Beach Battalion Fire Chief Joe McClure, “and that was on the west side of Laguna Canyon Road. No lanes were blocked and we just put up a few barricades until it gets cleaned up.”

In other parts of Orange County, storm drains handled the rain and there were no damage reports, said Bill Reiter, Environmental Management Agency public works manager.

Warmer and drier weather expected today should help dry out soggy hillsides, said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData, Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Brack said today’s highs should be in the 50s to lower 60s. With the cloud cover expected to remain this evening, nights should warm up to the mid-40s, he said.

However, a large area of tropical moisture now west of Baja California could be just enough for a few showers on Thursday when it mixes with weak remnants of a northern storm, Brack said.

Meanwhile, a 4,000-gallon sewage spill has closed an area of beach about 2,500 feet long from Dumond Drive south to Blue Lagoon Drive in Laguna Beach, said Lawrence Honeybourne, County Health Care Agency program chief of water quality.

The spill, from the South Coast Water District, was caused when a manhole on a line running along the bluffs became blocked, causing sewage to flow into the ocean, Honeybourne said.