Rains Soak Southland; 5 Die in Wrecks

More than 500 people were involved in traffic accidents Monday, two of them fatal, as the biggest storm so far this rainy season hit Southern California on Monday, creating a commuter nightmare and triggering minor rockslides and flooding on the charred Malibu foothills.

The worst accident of the day was on California 126, about two miles outside the Santa Clarita city limits, where three men were killed when their car collided head-on with a big-rig truck.

The crash occurred shortly before 4 p.m., just west of Chiquito Canyon Road, on a portion of the two-lane highway known locally as “blood alley” because of its history of fatal wrecks. Details of the accident were not available, but the California Highway Patrol said Monday’s rainstorms were a factor.

The dead were identified as three Fillmore men, all 35 years old. Their names were not released pending notification of relatives. The driver of the semi, Daniel Babineaux, 37, of Ventura, was not injured, the CHP said.

In Orange County, a grisly rear-end collision in San Clemente on the northbound lanes of the San Diego Freeway killed two men riding in a car trunk and critically injured two others, also in the trunk. None of the victims were identified. Throughout the day, the slick roads caused other traffic accidents, including a number of jackknifed big-rig trucks and vehicles sliding off the slippery freeways.

By Monday night there had been 20 SigAlerts and 525 accidents, according to the CHP. And a number of freeways were still clogged at 9 p.m. All of the northbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway at Glenoaks Boulevard were closed due to mud slides, and three of the four lanes of the southbound Golden State at the Hollywood Freeway were closed because of a jackknifed truck.

“There’s heavy traffic everywhere, but the 5 is a mess,” CHP Officer Shirley Gaines said Monday night. “The freeways have been jammed all day and it’s taking a long time for them to clear up because of the rain.”

By Monday night, 1.64 inches of rain had fallen at the Civic Center and 3 inches had fallen in Pasadena, with more rain forecast for today.

Snow levels were expected to drop to 4,000 feet in Northern California and 6,000 feet in the southern Sierra Nevada by late Monday.

“The entire state will be seeing scattered showers and periods of rain and snow at the higher elevations” through today, said Curtis Brack of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “It’s probably going to lighten up somewhat [today] but it’s still going to be cloudy and generally rainy across the state.”

Brack blamed the precipitation on a huge cold front over the eastern Pacific that stretched from the Gulf of Alaska to Hawaii.

The traffic problems began in the afternoon as the cold rain fell at a rate of about a quarter-inch an hour, forcing road closures in the San Fernando Valley and Malibu. By rush hour Monday, accidents on rain-slick freeways had turned several Los Angeles County interchanges into virtual parking lots.

The quick-moving storm hit from southern Oregon to the Mexican border, with the strongest rains in Southern and Central California. The National Weather Service issued flash flood watches for burn areas in Los Angeles and Ventura counties through today.

Steady rain triggered minor rock falls and flooding on the denuded slopes overlooking Malibu, where an October wildfire burned more than 13,000 acres. Officials closed Malibu Canyon Road for several hours Monday evening.

Although Malibu city officials said it would take several days of heavy rain to saturate the soil and trigger mudslides, they warned residents to sandbag their property and avoid driving on roads through the community’s rocky canyons.

“We don’t really expect significant mudflow,” said John Clement, Malibu’s director of public works. “But in my three years in Malibu, I’ve learned not to be surprised what new mountain is going to fall next.”

By Monday afternoon, trucks fitted with bulldozer blades were clearing rocks from canyon roads and local fire stations were distributing hundreds of sandbags. Malibu city officials warned that there was little they could do, however, to prevent major mudslides if the rain continues for several days.

After the firestorms of 1993, Malibu received emergency funding to brace for mudslides the next winter. No such measures will be taken this winter because federal authorities told the city they will not pay for them, officials said.

Among the small number of Malibu residents who were sandbagging their homes was Sharon Barovsky, who lives on Malibu Road. Barovsky stuffed damp copies of old newspapers between the cracks of burlap sandbags, looking up at a muddy hillside that loomed over her home, which faces the blustery Pacific Ocean.

“We didn’t want to wait,” said Barovsky, 56, pointing to the brown trickle of mud that was already seeping through her wall of sandbags. “I’m one of those compulsive people who thinks she can stem the tides of nature.”

In the San Fernando Valley, rising water in the Sepulveda Dam flood control basin forced police to close streets in and around the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area shortly after 3 p.m.

Burbank Boulevard was closed to traffic between Sepulveda Boulevard and Hayvenhurst Avenue, and Woodley Avenue was closed between Victory and Burbank boulevards.

“It’s not going to be pretty out there during rush hour today,” said LAPD traffic supervisor Mimi Martin. “But we can’t let cars drive through there. They’ll drown.”

In Orange County, many of the accidents involved cars that had gone too fast for the wet conditions and skidded off the road, said CHP spokeswoman Michelle DiMaggio. “Someone hits their brakes and spins out and goes over the side.”

Times staff writers David Haldane and Josh Meyer and correspondents Steve Ryfle and Scott Steepleton contributed to this story.