Flood Kills 2 Teens as Storm Socks Southland

Five students from San Gabriel High School were swept away by flood waters--with two of them confirmed dead and one still missing--as a powerful winter storm unleashed torrential downpours Wednesday on Southern California.

The teenagers, who had ventured into Alhambra Wash beside the school shortly before morning classes began, were carried away by a surge in the fast-moving runoff.

Rescuers--alerted by a passerby who saw the students cascading helplessly down the concrete-lined flood channel--pulled a 14-year-old girl from the Rio Hondo, more than three miles downstream from the school. A 15-year-old boy managed to clamber out on his own.

When the flood waters receded a few hours later, the bodies of two of their companions were recovered amid the flood debris along the river. A search for the fifth student was called off for the night late Wednesday, but scheduled to resume this morning with sheriff’s divers joining the effort.

In other areas, brief but intense cloudbursts and gale-force winds uprooted palm trees, downed power lines and collapsed ceilings in an apartment house Wednesday morning. Snow piled up in the Tehachapi, San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains and hail carpeted lawns in Altadena.

Downed trees across power lines caused power outages lasting from 30 seconds to six hours at about 4,500 homes and businesses in Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, La Habra and Huntington Beach.

“We had this huge downpour in the morning, and everybody started having problems,” said utility spokesman Steve Hansen.

The storm forced the closure of two northbound lanes of the Orange Freeway at Orangethorpe Avenue just after 9:30 a.m. when intense rain swamped the carpool and adjacent lanes, said Maureena Duran-Rojas, a Caltrans spokeswoman.

All lanes on Pacific Coast Highway between Golden West Street and Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach were temporarily closed during the day.

Officials in San Gabriel said the five teenagers from that city’s high school had been splashing in a puddle on the bottom of the wash behind their school about 9 a.m. when, without warning, a wall of runoff water swept down the channel and engulfed them.

Two customers at a doughnut shop about a mile and a half downstream looked up to see the teenagers hurtling down the flooded channel.

Three of the students were locked in a tight embrace. A fourth--a small girl--struggled alone in the roiling, mud-brown water. The fifth was nowhere to be seen.

“I saw heads popping up and down,” said Rosemead resident Paul Sinquimani, 27, who called 911.

County swift-water rescue teams that sped downstream to the Rio Hondo pulled a 14-year-old girl from a tree where she clung, a few yards below where the wash joins the river. A 15-year-old boy pulled himself from the river before the rescuers arrived.

“They were just so happy to be out of the water,” said county Firefighter William Borthwick, who helped in the rescue. Both teenagers were taken to County-USC Medical Center, where they were treated for minor injuries.

As several hours passed with no sign of the other three, officials said there was little hope that they had survived. The current was moving so fast--30 mph--that the students had little chance to escape on their own, and hypothermia sets in after about an hour in the 50-degree water.

“You can’t fight these waters,” said county fire Inspector Henry Rodriguez. “You can be an Olympic swimmer and I will guarantee you will lose.”

By noon, the waters receded and firefighters combing the river discovered the body of a 14-year-old girl tangled in the lower branches of the same tree in which the rescued girl had been found. A few hours later, the body of another 14-year-old girl was found nearby. Rescuers continued to search for a 17-year-old boy.

Officials said the 17-year-old was the brother of one of the dead girls. None of the teenagers were identified.

The tragedy left fellow students and school officials stunned.

“I’m not crying right now because I’m trying to deal with this crisis, but I’m extremely sad,” said Principal Linda Maryott. “My heart is broken.”

Maryott said a tall fence separates the school grounds from the wash, but students obviously had found a way around it. Late Wednesday afternoon, officials removed a rope ladder leading down to the wash that students had strung some time ago from the top of the fence.

In Santa Ana, the storm dumped more than half an inch of rain, according to the National Weather Service, while Santiago Peak got 2 1/2 inches.

Numerous lightning strikes were reported, and a theater complex under construction in Chatsworth was hit four times. No injuries were reported.

Gusting winds downed power poles in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. More than 3,000 customers lost power at least temporarily in Woodland Hills, Sun Valley, Winnetka, Panorama City and Arleta, according to the Department of Water and Power.

In the Westlake district, several residents were displaced after the ceilings in four apartment units caved in beneath a roof that had been stripped several days ago for renovations.

In East Los Angeles, two women trapped atop their car in a flooded underpass were rescued by bystanders. Firefighters who arrived on the scene rescued a third.

At John Wayne Airport on Thursday, which handled an estimated 27,000 passengers compared with the normal 18,000 or so, the start of heavy rain prompted an announcement urging people to go see the rain.

“Everyone proceed to the bay windows,” the announcer said over the loudspeaker. “El Nino is here.”

When a Delta flight was delayed for two hours, waiting passengers were treated to an impromptu performance by a Delta flight attendant, who took out sheet music, borrowed a piano in the lounge and began playing classical compositions.

“Her music was just beautiful, and was a real treat for the waiting passengers,” an airline spokeswoman said.

Even with the heavy rain, the chore of schlepping to Los Angeles International Airport--on what is traditionally the busiest travel day of the year--proved to be something of a pleasant surprise, travelers said.

Actress Sally Struthers, who zipped to the airport from Brentwood with beau Reggie Sully, summed up her day while waiting for a flight to Portland, Ore.:

“I thought I was going to have bad trouble because of the news. . . . It’s a nonevent. I love nonevents.”

John Sanchez, 35, of Carpinteria arrived at the airport on the Santa Barbara Airbus.

“There was some traffic,” Sanchez said, “but our bus driver was excellent, wheeling in and out of the lanes to keep us going.”

Wednesday’s storm hit Southern California at dawn, as expected, with sporadic, often heavy precipitation throughout the day. By nightfall, 0.66 of an inch of rain had fallen at the Los Angeles Civic Center, with about twice that much in some of the surrounding foothill communities.

John Sherwin, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the northern Pacific storm--which had nothing to do with the El Nino meteorological phenomenon--should be clear of the Southland this morning, although there could be a few lingering showers.

Tonight will be one of the coldest of the year, he said, with temperatures dipping into the upper 30s at the coldest locations in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

Sherwin said Friday and Saturday will be mostly sunny and a little warmer, but another cool storm from the northern Pacific could reach here by Sunday night.

“It looks like we might do it all over again,” he said.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Alan Abrahamson, Matea Gold, Solomon Moore, David Reyes and Eric Rimbert, and correspondents Dade Hayes, Jon Steinman and Claire Vitucci.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Rain to Go Away

A fast-moving storm dumped half an inch of rain in parts of the county Wednesday. Expect skies to clear after light morning showers today. The clearing trend should continue through the weekend with highs in the 70s by Saturday. Rainfall totals as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, in inches:

Location: Inches

Dana Point: .40

Lake Forest: .14

Newport Beach: .38

San Juan Capistrano: .51

Santa Ana: .57

****

SANTA ANA SEASONALS

Season to date: 3.07

Last season to date: 4.17

Normal to date: 1.67

Source: WeatherData Inc.