More Soggy Weather on the Way

Here we go again. Expect more hairy commutes and coastal flooding--and some pretty spectacular surf--as another storm swings into Southern California today, toting along downpours, wind gusts and even the odd thunderstorm before skipping off this evening.

A similar weather pattern probably will slam into Northern California, which is already soggy from a heavy dose of rain that started over the weekend and continued Monday.

“This is definitely a strong storm,” said meteorologist Wes Etheredge of WeatherData Inc. “It’s not a weak one by any stretch of the imagination.”

Despite dire warnings of potential floods and mudslides--including a Red Cross bulletin urging Southland residents to double-check the family disaster kit--today’s storm is not likely to break any records.

The Los Angeles Basin has actually received less rain this year than last, and the latest squall should drop just 1 to 4 inches in the coastal plains, Etheredge said. (The foothills, especially slopes facing south and west, could get up to 8 inches of rain.)

Statewide, meanwhile, most reservoirs are reporting lower water levels than the record levels at this time last year. Although the reservoirs are still slightly higher than average, officials would welcome more snow in the Sierra because it would “give us more of a cushion” in case of drought, said Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys for the Department of Water Resources.

If Gehrke was hoping for more precipitation, he was largely alone.

Californians elsewhere had their hands full gearing up for a storm that, although not expected to be as horrendous as some of last winter’s whoppers, was still threatening to cause major problems statewide.

Farmers in saturated Ventura County scrambled to harvest broccoli, cauliflower and celery, hoping to bring in the produce before their fields flooded.

With local meteorologists warning that the Ventura County coast could get up to 10 inches of rain over the next few days, officials evacuated a recreational vehicle park at the mouth of the Ventura River and searched river bottoms to clear out homeless people camping near the rising water.

Coastal dwellers, meanwhile, kept a wary eye on the churning surf, which damaged 11 homes in Ventura County over the weekend and knocked pilings out from under the historic Ventura Pier. The mammoth waves were expected to return today, with swells as high as 15 feet, especially on south-facing beaches such as those in Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Long Beach.

“It will be ‘Victory at Sea,’ a wild ocean,” Rae Strange of Pacific Weather Analysis predicted. “It’s going to be a lot of wind and a lot of sea.”

The prospect of towering waves prompted Los Angeles County officials to move three lifeguard towers at Dockweiler State Beach away from the shoreline. And fire officials ordered squadrons of heavy machinery operators to stand ready to deliver reinforcement sand to the artificial dunes built to hold back waves along the shore from Malibu to Orange County.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department also mobilized seven swift-water search and rescue teams--one of which was called Monday to save two people stranded in thick mud and rushing waters at Lake Piru, Fire Inspector Henry Rodriguez said. The city’s rescue squad moved a homeless man out of Big Tujunga Wash. And rescuers expected to be even busier today.

“This [storm] is going to be significant,” Rodriguez said.

That’s what worried Capt. Dennis Childress of the Orange County Fire Authority, who looked up outside his Silverado Canyon station to see a huge boulder that is cracking away from a bluff above four homes that suffered heavy storm damage earlier this winter.

“There’s one large very precarious rock hanging over those homes that has everyone worried,” Childress said. “To tell you the truth, no one has figured out what to do about it.”

By Monday night, the storm was hitting the Bay Area in full force, causing power outages and shutting down roads, including U.S. 101 in Marin County. “We’re getting a half-inch [of rain] an hour and winds of up to 75 mph on the coast,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Morrill. “By morning we should have a lot of flash flooding.”

On Monday afternoon, the ground was already flooded at the famed Pebble Beach golf course, with waves smashing over a sea wall and swamping the 18th hole. The links were so sodden, in fact, that officials of the Professional Golfer’s Assn. had to call off the AT & T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament, postponing the final round until March 2.

“They’re playing for a $2.5-million purse, so if conditions were OK, [the golfers] wouldn’t have minded playing in the rain. But the greens are underwater,” said Paul Spengler, vice president for golf courses at the Pebble Beach Co.

In Southern California, at least, residents could take heart in predictions for sunnier skies Wednesday and Thursday, with at worst a few showers Friday and Saturday. But a new storm system was expected to sock Northern California at the end of the week.

“We’re looking with attentive rapture at the end of the week,” said Chris Godley, assistant coordinator with the Sonoma County emergency office. “We’re expecting the potential for more problems then.”

Such gloom-and-doom talk irritated at least a few Southland residents, who could not get worked up about the expected drenching.

“I am sick of everybody worrying about this,” said Tom Wilson, who has lived for 16 years on a hillside in Orange County’s Silverado Canyon, below the four homes that were condemned for safety reasons earlier this season. “If that gorge is going to puke mud and rock all over us, it’s going to do it. But I doubt it will.”

Los Angeles County residents with concerns about flooding can call the Department of Public Works storm hotline at (800) 980-4990.

Times staff writers David Reyes, Janet Wilson, Josh Meyer, Daryl Kelley and Maria L. La Ganga, Miles Corwin and correspondent Tracy Johnson contributed to this story.

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