Predictable Forecast: If It’s Wet, It’s Wild,

The season’s first rain pelted Orange County on Wednesday, flooding roads, knocking out power and snarling traffic with scores of fender-bending accidents, including a 13-car pileup on the Riverside Freeway.

Beleaguered residents from the fire-scarred Lemon Heights community escaped the downpours without suffering any major mudslides, as some had feared, while students at Laguna Beach’s El Morro Elementary School had their studies interrupted by water flowing into several of their classrooms.

By far, the biggest victims of the rains were commuters, who endured hours-long delays on county freeways and roads. After letting up in the afternoon, showers returned to some areas by nightfall. Forecasters said the rain should let up this morning, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-to-high 60s.

There were so many traffic accidents throughout the county that tow-truck drivers could barely keep pace with all the activity.

“I’ve never seen such a mess in my life,” said Steve Wilson, manager of Anaheim-Fullerton Towing and a retired highway patrolman. “The first time it rains, all the oils and grease gets lifted from the roads, and they get extremely slippery. Tow services go nuts on these days.”

Despite the number of traffic accidents, only minor injuries were reported, including two California Highway Patrol officers whose patrol cars were rear-ended in separate accidents as they pulled over to assist stranded motorists on southbound Interstate 5.

The rain also wreaked some havoc in the Los Angeles area, snarling freeway and canyon traffic and forcing about 100 apartment residents in Boyle Heights to flee for cover after a makeshift roof collapsed.

It also caused extra concern in Malibu, where hillsides were stripped bare in last week’s destructive wildfires. Officials reported that erosion was minimal, and the only serious rockslide was reported on Malibu Canyon Road just north of the tunnel. The Highway Patrol closed the road to clear away the debris.

Rick Morgan, Malibu’s city engineer, fretted that another storm could send rocks tumbling down the hillside.

“If you drive that canyon, you can see with all that brush gone,” Morgan said. “Loose boulders are poised everywhere.”

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Police officers and tow-truck drivers were among the few professionals who saw a boom in business because of the pesky precipitation.

At the Mile Square Golf Course in Fountain Valley, where open tee times are a rarity, nary a duffer could be seen.

“Even our most stout-hearted golfers failed to show today,” said A.J. Molitor, who works in the pro shop. “The rain gods did a number on them. No one has shown. The ducks won out today.”

Still, hope springs eternal among die-hard hackers.

“It’s amazing,” Molitor said. “Even on days like today, I’ll get calls from guys three blocks away asking, ‘How’s it looking over there?’ ”

Business was just as bleak at the Happy Hands Car Wash in Santa Ana, as workers were told to take the day off.

“Nobody gets their car washed on rainy days. There is no business at all,” said Michelle Riddle, a secretary at the carwash. “We’re just keeping the gas pumps open. The rest is closed.”

Cars weren’t the only things not getting cleaned Wednesday.

“The rain definitely hurts business,” said C.J. Hill of Furry Friends Pet Grooming in Yorba Linda. “The public tends to stay away because they don’t want to clean a pet that’s just going to get dirty again in the mud.”

On the other hand, she said, “a few days after the rain, business booms.”

Even if people had wanted to wash their cars or their pets, they probably would have had a tough time getting there.

Caltrans officials temporarily closed a number of Orange County roads Wednesday morning because of flooding.

Among the closures:

* A southbound lane of Pacific Coast Highway between Golden West Street and Warner Avenue.

* The northbound El Toro Road on-ramp to Interstate 5.

* The No. 1 lane of Interstate 5 between Bake Parkway and El Toro Road.

* The westbound Brookhurst Street on-ramp to the Riverside Freeway.

Commuters stuck in the morning traffic could consider themselves among the lucky ones. Less fortunate motorists will soon be speaking with their insurance agents, explaining that the car in front of them came out of nowhere or the louse behind them must have been blind.

“We’ve been going from crash to crash all morning long,” CHP spokeswoman Angel Johnson said. “Normally on the first rain of the season, people forget how to drive.”

Such was the case along the Riverside Freeway, where 13 cars were involved in three separate-but-related collisions near the Gypsum Canyon Road offramp. The crashes blocked three lanes of traffic between 8 and 8:45 a.m. Only minor injuries were reported.

Despite all the accidents, Johnson said motorists were doing better than they have in the past.

“People have been driving slower on the freeways because of the rain and not going 70 miles an hour like they usually do,” she said.

One motorist in Anaheim wasn’t going slow enough and slammed into a power pole, briefly knocking out electricity to a couple thousands residents. Several other similar outages were reported in other areas of the city, as well as in the city of Orange, authorities said.

Traffic and power problems, however, should clear up along with the weather, forecasters said.

Friday should be warmer and less cloudy, according to Mark Mulholland, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

But there is a chance of showers again this weekend, forecasters said.

On Wednesday, more than an inch of rain fell on most of Orange County, with nearly 3 inches falling on Santiago Peak in Modjeska Canyon, Mulholland said.

“A cold front has been passing through the state moving south-eastward,” Mulholland said. “As soon as it moves through, that should be the end of the rain for a while.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Martin Miller and George Ramos and correspondent Matea Gold.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

First Rain

The first rainstorm of the season dropped almost an inch in Santa Ana and varying amounts elsewhere. Storm totals by late afternoon:

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City Inches Anaheim 1.13 Dana Point 1.22 Fullerton 1.22 Laguna Beach 1.18 Lake Forest 0.80 Newport Beach 1.12 San Juan Capistrano 1.43 Santa Ana 0.98

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Santa Ana Totals

Season to date: 0.98

Last season to date: 0.00

Normal season to date: 0.52

Source: WeatherData Inc.