Storm Puts Traffic on the Skids

Fender-benders abounded, Pacific Coast Highway was closed in Huntington Beach, and residents of fire-charred hills watched for possible floods and mudslides Thursday as a Pacific storm swept down the California coast.

Reaching from the Northwest into Mexico, the storm system is expected to dump 2 to 4 inches of rain on the southern part of the state before dying out tonight.

Drivers accustomed to bone-dry freeways were involved in hundreds of accidents in the region, slowing commuter traffic to a crawl in some spots and exasperating the California Highway Patrol.

“People continue to drive too fast, too close,” grumbled CHP Officer Dwight McDonald, who patrols the West San Fernando Valley. “They change lanes like they’re driving in the summer. They crash. They roll over. And they make us earn our pay.”

Rain in Orange County is expected through the late afternoon today, with temperatures in the high 50s to mid-60s.

The heavy rains in Orange County caused a rash of auto accidents and closures of the coastal highway because of flooding. The CHP reported more than 1,600 calls Thursday, including about 400 crashes, said Officer Keith Bauer of the Santa Ana office. Normally, CHP officers respond to about 800 calls daily in the county.

“We haven’t had any fatalities,” Bauer said. “But traffic is really slow.” Most of the traffic accidents were fender benders, but a few involved big-rigs that prompted the CHP to shut down parts of the freeways, Bauer said.

About 11:30 a.m., an 18-wheeler traveling on the Orange Freeway north of Ball Road sideswiped a concrete center divider and caused a two-lane shutdown. Less than an hour later, a truck traveling on the Riverside Freeway skidded into another vehicle and forced authorities to close the Orange Freeway transition, CHP officials said.

Another morning accident left one man with leg injuries after his car veered off Ortega Highway into an embankment, CHP officials said. The man, whose name was not released, was trapped inside the car and had to be rescued by firefighters.

By Thursday afternoon, the showers were enough to force the closure of Pacific Coast Highway between Warner Avenue and Golden West Street in Huntington Beach.

At the Orange County Fire Authority’s headquarters in Orange, firefighters were monitoring the rain hourly, Capt. Scott Brown said.

“What we are concerned about is the flood control situation and any possible erosion in areas ravished by fire, mainly the Lemon Heights area,” Brown said. “So far, we are not aware of any problems, but we will continue to monitor.”

Other than the “off-and-on scattered power outages,” a Southern California Edison Co. spokesman said, the county experienced no major problems involving downed power lines.

Elsewhere in the Southland, several big-rig trucks crashed, closing freeway lanes. At least three such accidents occurred on one stretch of Interstate 5 in the Santa Clarita Valley, tying up traffic for hours. In another incident on I-5, a CHP cruiser was hit while the officer was investigating a traffic accident.

In Ventura County, a single-car rollover on California 126 near Fillmore killed a Camarillo man, authorities said.

There was sporadic flooding along roadways, but in Malibu, where wildfires denuded slopes last month, officials were relieved as the canyon hills held throughout the day.

Still, they braced themselves for heavy rains during the night. “Because it’s coming down later than anticipated, we don’t want to get a false sense of security,” said Sarah Maurice, a Malibu spokeswoman. “It’s all going to depend on what happens tonight.”

Malibu officials expressed frustration that more residents were not sandbagging hills along Malibu Road and other high-risk routes.

“We would like to see more people getting in there and using the sandbags,” Maurice said. “If not, and we get any kind of runoff, this may be a good lesson for the rains in January and February. That’s when we really have the potential to get hammered.”

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Wet Ways

Orange County’s second significant shower of the season dropped more than an inch of rain around the county. Storm totals through 4 p.m. Thursday:

Anaheim: 1.41

Laguna Beach: 1.20

Lake Forest: 1.27

Santa Ana: 1.35

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Santa Ana Totals

Season to date: 2.33

Last season to date: 0.00

Normal to date: 1.42

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Forecast

Rain continuing through the day, ending in late afternoon or early evening. Temperatures ranging from the upper 50s to low 60s.

Source: WeatherData Inc.