Return of the Rains : 2 Van Nuys Roads Closed Indefinitely; Localized Flooding Reported

Rain eased up on water-soaked Southern California late Saturday after steady precipitation through most of the day added as much as 2 1/2 inches to areas that were already awash. But meteorologists expect more rain by Tuesday.

Despite the letup Saturday, low-lying cities were still experiencing some flooding. Long Beach police reported 49 blocks, mostly on the city’s west side, in various stages on inundation.

In the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles Police Department closed roads leading into Sepulveda Basin in Van Nuys about 9 a.m. Saturday. Parts of Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue will remain closed indefinitely because of the forecast of more rain, police said.

“It’s easier and safer to keep it closed than to open it and have to rescue people if it floods,” said Sgt. Barry Kirschenman of the Van Nuys Division. Several cars were partly submerged in the basin when heavy rains flooded the Los Angeles River Channel in 1992.

But while authorities in the Valley were taking precautionary measures Saturday, those in Long Beach were coping with continuing flooding.

“It’s real bad around 15th Street between Daisy and Magnolia (avenues),” Officer Darren Lance said. “It’s like a big lake there.”

In some streets, the water was as high as four feet, though there were no reports of houses being evacuated, Lance said. By late Saturday, parts of downtown Long Beach between Cherry Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard were beginning to flood.

“It was very consistent,” Lance said. “It just never stopped raining.”

Although that was also true elsewhere, outside of Long Beach, the storm lacked the punch that some meteorologists had predicted.

The weather was more intense in Northern California because of heavy winds, meteorologists said. The Coast Guard posted gale warnings through Monday in the Bay Area, which was experiencing 40 m.p.h. windswith 20-foot swells.

The Golden State Freeway near Gorman was closed for most of Saturday morning because of snow and ice, but all lanes were opened by the afternoon, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

But CHP officials were more concerned about low-lying areas than areas such as the Grapevine, the snowy mountainous stretch on the Golden State Freeway north of Los Angeles. “We’re having a lot more problems in lower areas where water collects and people insist on driving through at high rates of speed,” said spokesman John George.

Meteorologist Curtis Brack of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said that the next storm is gathering over the Aleutians in the Northern Pacific. “We should have a dry day on Monday,” he said. “But I see showers in Southern California at least by Tuesday afternoon.”

He said there was a slight possibility of scattered showers in the region today.

Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this story.