WEATHER-BEATEN: O.C. DELUGE : It Was a Day When the Bad Guys Got to Ride in as Heroes : Transportation: Tow truck drivers were out in force to help stranded, appreciative motorists.

Wednesday was a good day for Dan Payan.

The rain made it that way.

For once, Payan, a tow truck operator, was the hero and not the bad guy. He responded to a dozen rain-related calls and fished many out of a jam.

“It’s nice to be appreciated,” said Payan, dressed in a yellow raincoat, as he maneuvered his tow truck through the streets of Costa Mesa. “Usually we’re just considered dirt bags, the people who end up towing cars away because they’re illegally parked. But every once and a while, people thank us. People like to see us come along.”

On Wednesday, people breathed sighs of relief at the sight of Payan, who rescued more than a dozen drivers who had either driven off the side of the road or into a ditch in the pouring rain.

“People sometimes just drive too fast for the conditions,” he said, as his dispatcher blared out instructions and directions on the truck’s two-way radio.

Payan works for G&W; Towing, which handled more than 100 calls on Wednesday. Some of the accidents were serious and others were minor and required little attention. Almost all were rain-related, according to John Godby, the dispatcher, who had little time to talk because nine people were holding for him.

“People are upset, they’re crying, they can’t believe it’s happening,” he said.

One way to avoid accidents, he said, is to survey an intersection carefully, especially if it looks flooded and you don’t think you can make it.

“But most of the people, they think they can make it through. They don’t take anybody’s word for it, they lose their brakes and the water shoots up into the motor area and drowns the distributor cap.”

That’s when the car stalls and people like Payan are called into action for $35 a hookup.

Payan, who earns about $10 an hour, carries on his truck the fundamental tools used by most tow truck operators to get the job done. His most important tool is the truck’s winch, which can be used in a variety of ways to pull vehicles out of ditches and to pull them apart in case of a wreck. And, of course, it’s used to tow cars away.

Payan also carries bolt cutters, fire extinguishers, shovels and auxiliary lights in case it gets dark.

Payan’s calls Wednesday included pulling a pickup truck from the side of Gisler Avenue, which is under construction. The driver said he did not see signs warning of the construction because it was raining hard, making him lose control.

Payan also towed an Irvine police officer who became stuck in mud, and he also pulled another car that ran off a roadway in Irvine out of harm’s way.

Payan said that Wednesday’s rainstorm was among the worst conditions for motorists he had seen in the past 10 years.