The Race Is On to Fix Damage of Last Storm Before the Next

With the first El Nino-influenced storm of the season now history but anticipating others yet to come, Caltrans and Orange County workers are racing to complete emergency repairs to freeways, to shore up weakened flood channels and to remove debris left after several days of powerful Santa Ana winds.

Weather forecasters say another storm spawned off the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea is headed toward Southern California, and could bring more rainfall late today or early Monday.

News of the approaching storm prompted Caltrans officials on Friday to close Laguna Canyon Road for emergency repair work for four hours. Larry Kellerman, Caltrans resident engineer in the county, said that “with another storm expected for Monday, we wanted to get this done as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, segments of the county’s 350-mile flood control network that suffered damage in the latest storm were undergoing emergency repairs, with washed-out concrete lining being patched or replaced with heavy rock.

Flood control officials are not only concerned about the emergency repairs but also the buildup of debris from Santa Ana winds, which recently deposited in flood control channels tons of dust, leaves, tree limbs and trash that could choke storm drains.

“We knew the Santa Anas were going to come, but we thought they would help dry out everything,” said John W. Sibley, county director of public facilities. Sibley and Bill Reiter, county flood control director, both expressed concerns about landslides in the county’s saturated hills and flooding in low-lying areas.

“If we get a rain every week or every other week, we’re going to have trouble,” Reiter said. “We’re pretty saturated already.”

Many residents are equally concerned about the weather patterns in this El Nino year.

“We’re already tired of all this water,” said Patricia Brown, manager of the Del Mar Mobile Home Park in Huntington Beach, which had to be evacuated last weekend after 5 feet of water pooled and quickly flooded the 142-tenant park. “There was so much water the pumps couldn’t handle it.”

In preparation for new storms, Brown said the park got a fresh supply of sandbags to replace those that washed away. It also plans to erect a wall of sandbags along the park’s perimeter, as well as near an adjacent nursery where water flooded through and into the park.

Tenants of the mobile home park have also been told that as soon as any water reaches the height of their driveways, they should go to the park’s main clubhouse. Last week, residents didn’t evacuate their homes and go to the clubhouse until they were telephoned individually, a process that took too long.

Still, those precautions might not be enough.

“To be honest with you, we’re going to be doing a lot of praying,” she said.

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No one can predict exactly where and how the El Nino-related storms will strike. They can arrive in a single, powerful front, or be spread out over a period of weeks, causing power outages, severe flooding and other problems, said Dan Cayan, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla.

Cayan said that scientists have concluded that the winter storms in El Nino years have a “tendency to be more persistent” with rainfall falling for longer periods and “somewhat heavier than in normal years.”

“When you look at the incidence of heavy precipitation events,” Cayan said, “they tend to cluster more. And if you consider a daily event that exceeds an inch of rainfall, it’s more likely to occur in an El Nino year.”

The volume of rainfall in the county is already far ahead of normal. To date, Santa Ana has recorded 8.27 inches. The normal rainfall for the entire season is 12.53 inches, according to WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

Orange County flood control district officials said that emergency work was expected to be finished at least by Saturday for the following major projects:

* Trabuco Creek in San Juan Capistrano. More than 250 feet of damaged concrete lining was fortified with rock downstream of Del Obispo Street.

* Walnut Canyon Storm Channel in Anaheim Hills. More than 75 feet of slope and concrete lining was lost along the banks and channel bottom.

* Serrano Creek in Lake Forest. Heavy erosion to 250 feet of bank slope near Trabuco Road and Bake Parkway in a natural channel. The waterway was clogged by downed trees that caused flooding in nearby homes. “We’re fighting to have this done by Saturday night,” Reiter said Friday.

* Laguna Canyon Channel. Between Laguna Beach and El Toro Road, lost 40 feet of concrete channel.

Despite praise for how the county handled last week’s storms, there are many chinks in the county’s armor, especially on its freeways and state roads.

Traditional problem areas again suffered major flooding, with closures of Interstate 5 near the El Toro Y and Alton Parkway, Laguna Canyon Road from the San Diego Freeway to Laguna Beach, and Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach between Golden West Street and Warner Avenue, as well as in Laguna Beach.

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Al Miranda, a spokesman for Caltrans in Orange County, said individual projects to improve the problem areas are ongoing.

“If you look at how we were five years ago, we’ve made dramatic improvements and will continue to do so as money is made available,” he said.

As for Laguna Canyon Road, a project has already been approved to realign the road on the west side of Laguna Lake. Plans also call for improving drainage of the road, so it meets with 100-year rainfall condition, he said.

The shutdown of Interstate 5 in Lake Forest was due to flooding from Alicia Parkway through the El Toro Y because of a failure of a nearby drainage system due to “too much rain in too short a time,” a Caltrans official said.

Pacific Coast Highway throughout the county has been targeted for ongoing repair, Miranda said. Repaving and overlay projects are scheduled for Corona del Mar, downtown Laguna Beach and in Huntington Beach near Warner Avenue.

Miranda cautioned that repairs, which can take six months to two years, are often delayed to permit input from area agencies, local businesses, cities and the state Coastal Commission.

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Rising Concerns

Damage to Orange County’s 350-mile flood control system by the first El Nino-related storm of the season included crumbled concrete walls and debris-choked creeks. The top five emergency repair projects the county is working on:

1. Trabuco Creek: Shore up concrete lining and install rock on creek bottom and walls

2. Walnut Canyon: Restore concrete lining to creek walls and bottom

3. Serrano Creek: Add rock to walls of this natural channel to stabilize trees

4. Laguna Canyon Channel: Replace three panels of concrete lining

5. Silverado Canyon area: General cleanup of creeks; install railing along creeks to control flow of debris and runoff

Source: Orange County Flood Control; Researched by DAVID REYES / Los Angeles Times