Pouring It On

Although forecasters predict rain showers should let up by midmorning today, Orange County coped with a major storm Wednesday that was not as powerful as feared but was potent enough to cause minor flooding and major traffic headaches.

Less than an inch of rain fell in Orange County by 5 p.m. Santa Ana received .88 of an inch, the highest recording in the county.

“The storm isn’t as strong as we thought it would be,” said Rob Kaczmarek, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “But it’s still one of the stronger ones that we’ve seen this year.”

Kaczmarek said the storm, which originated in Hawaii, is expected to weaken considerably today and make its way through the Southwest.

The biggest problems from the storm occurred on roadways across the county.

California Highway Patrol officials reported about triple the normal number of fender benders on the freeways.

“Our officers were going from crash to crash,” CHP spokeswoman Angel Johnson said. “People had a lot of advance warning about this storm, but you still have people who ignored that.”

The most serious accident occurred about 3 p.m. on Santiago Canyon Road when a big-rig truck jackknifed and overturned north of Modjeska Canyon Road. Santiago Canyon Road was partly blocked for more than two hours, the CHP reported.

Johnson said that many of the day’s traffic snarls and accidents involved drivers who did not practice what the CHP preaches: Drive slower, leave more space between vehicles and turn on headlights to increase visibility.

Aside from the accidents and general slowing on the freeways, a downed power pole resulted in a major traffic jam on Harbor Boulevard near Heil Avenue in Fountain Valley about 8 a.m. Wednesday.

The top portion of the pole and broken high-voltage wires fell to the street, limiting southbound traffic to a single lane, police said.

“The power pole for some reason blew up and burned to the ground,” said Fountain Valley Police Officer Bill Hufnagel, who ended up standing in the rain diverting morning rush-hour traffic a block away. “We had some major traffic problems.”

The incident resulted in about 1,000 residents losing electrical power for more than two hours, Southern California Edison spokesman Steve Conroy said.

Altogether, 10,700 Edison customers temporarily lost power for varying periods during the day. The outages were attributed to temporary circuit interruptions typically associated with rainfall, Conroy said.

Other motorists on county streets contended with numerous flooded intersections.

But the area many had feared would produce dangerous flooding remained safe.

In the Seal Beach community of Surfside, a makeshift barrier continued to hold back the ocean from homes that sit on a severely eroded beach. City public works employees were on call throughout the night for any problems, officials said.

“We were really monitoring it and keeping our fingers crossed,” said Steve Badum, Seal Beach public works director. “You never know what Mother Nature will throw at you.”

Times staff writer Lee Romney contributed to this report.