50 Homeless After Rainfall Collapses Roof

A winter storm that left 50 people homeless when part of an apartment complex roof collapsed Sunday may linger in Orange County with light showers today, with crisp, clear skies expected for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day before another round of showers returns Thursday.

About 0.22 inches of rain fell Sunday in Santa Ana, where Fire Department officials said the ceiling of six apartment units at 1001 N. Flower St. fell at 9 a.m. from the weight of accumulated rainwater.

There were no injuries.

The roof of the complex, which includes 36 units, had been undergoing repairs, officials said. The apartments were damaged to a point that the people were forced to leave, and Red Cross officials found temporary shelter for them, Battalion Chief Andy Money said.

Elsewhere in Orange County, California Highway Patrol officers were scurrying from one accident scene to another on the slippery roads, CHP dispatcher Tony Juliano said.

“The rain has made it crazy. People can’t drive in the rain for some reason,” Juliano said. “We’ve got our [officers] everywhere--the 91 Freeway, 57 Freeway, Garden Grove Freeway. You name it, we’re there responding to accidents. Traffic is a mess throughout the county.”

In Huntington Beach, police reported 10 crashes from 4 to 8 p.m. because of the rain.

The rain mixed with a Sunday rush of Christmas shoppers to create logjams at many freeway ramps leading to and from major malls in the county. Authorities said there were no ramp closures as a result of the heavy traffic. At South Coast Plaza, all that Costa Mesa officers could do was watch the gridlock in the parking lots and in streets leading to the mall.

“There’s really not a lot you can do but sit there and watch the cars,” said Costa Mesa police dispatcher Nancy Allen. “There’s just too many cars for the area, even after it was announced that the parking lots were already full. There haven’t been any incidents, and you hope that by having the cops there in plain sight everybody will obey the rules and behave accordingly.”

Over a 24-hour period, 13,000 homes lost power due to the rain and high winds that brought tree branches into contact with power lines, causing short-circuits, officials said.

The areas hardest hit by outages were Tustin, Orange, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach. Other areas in the county reported smaller outages. Officials said most of the power had been restored by late Sunday.

A pocket of about 60 residents remained without electricity in the Huntington Beach area, officials said.

Because of rain, the Orange County Health Care Agency is warning swimmers and beach-goers to avoid some ocean waters because they may contain high levels of bacteria.

Waters with the highest risk of contamination during and after rainstorms include ocean and bay areas adjacent to storm drains and river outlets.

Elevated levels of bacteria may continue for up to three days, said Steven K. Wong, assistant director of environmental health for the Health Care Agency.

While sewage is not normally present in such runoff, the overflow may contain fertilizers, road oil, animal waste and litter.

In the event of a sewage spill, beaches will be quarantined, according to the Health Care Agency.

The storm stretched from the Sierra Nevada to the sea and may have caused as many as eight deaths in California on Sunday, as car crashes piled up from Victorville to Santa Rosa and a private plane slammed into a dry lake bed in eastern San Bernardino County.

The moisture-laden cold front swept into the state late Friday, dumping up to 7 feet of snow in the Sierra and grounding commercial airliners in Reno and Sacramento. On Sunday, rain and winds of up to 50 mph moved into Southern California, knocking down power lines from Santa Monica to the Mojave Desert.

Four people, including two children, died Sunday afternoon when their van spun out of control on rain-slicked Interstate 15 and slammed into the center divider north of Victorville, a CHP dispatcher said.

Four others were injured in the crash, the cause of which was under investigation by the CHP. The names of the dead and injured were not immediately available.

Bad weather was cited as a possible cause of the Sunday morning crash of a private, six-seat plane headed for John Wayne Airport from Las Vegas.

Don Coash, meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides weather information for The Times, said clear skies are expected Tuesday and Wednesday after possible showers move out today.

He said showers may return Thursday night. Temperatures should range from a low of about 45 up to 70.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Nicholas Riccardi and Julie Tamaki and correspondents Ed Bond and Sharon Moeser.

Roof Collapses

More than 50 people were evacuated from a Santa Ana apartment complex Sunday when a roof collapsed because of accumulated rainwater. No one was injured.