Cleaning Up--and Gearing Up for More

The rainstorm brought an avalanche of mud and debris crashing into a Dana Point hotel over the stormy weekend, but it didn’t dampen the manager’s sense of humor on Monday.

“All I know is that our neighbor above us was so kind that she moved her property line and gave us her backyard,” said Justine A. Harrison of the Holiday Inn Express, who enlisted a cellular phone to field calls from cleanup crews and this week’s arriving guests after phone service was disrupted.

As much as 10 feet of mud oozed from the hillside into the hotel’s underground parking structure, knocking out electrical power, rupturing gas lines and decommissioning the facility’s air-conditioning system. The hotel is expected to reopen this week.

“This is no longer a hotel, it’s a mud spa,” quipped owner Marc Paskin.

They joined hundreds of Orange County business owners and residents who took advantage of Monday’s dry weather to mop up from the storm that dumped at least 6 inches of rain from Thursday afternoon through Sunday.

That was enough to surpass yearly averages in some places.

In Santa Ana, 16.06 inches have fallen so far this season, more than double the normal 7.52 inches by this date, said Jeff House, a meteorologist with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times.

“That’s definitely quite a lot of rain,” House said. “For the whole season, Santa Ana only averages 12.53 inches of rain.”

Another front is expected to bring high clouds today but little chance of rain, House said. The next rain may come Friday, he said, adding that a larger storm is on the horizon for next week.

Bill Reiter, county flood control director, said last weekend’s storm packed a serious wallop, causing “every creek in the county to overflow its bounds.”

While monetary damage is still being assessed, Reiter said the storm eroded 150 feet of asphalt trail along Aliso Creek in Lake Forest, and ate away 100 feet of the Fullerton Creek channel’s concrete embankment in Buena Park.

Tim Miller, supervisor of the county regional park system, estimated damage to the park system at $250,000.

Despite the respite, Reiter said the Santa Ana River will be flowing because of a release of water by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is trying to manage the level at Prado Dam in Riverside County.

In San Clemente, utilities to nine Capistrano Shores’ mobile homes were disconnected. Trang Nguyen, a city building official, said that some foundations have been weakened by rain and high surf.

“We were afraid that the units will move and snap gas and other utility lines,” he said.

After nearly two weeks of large surf, high tides and rain runoff, Capistrano Shores residents like Yvonne Matilsky are “emotionally drained.”

“Everybody, including myself, we’ve just had it,” said Matilsky, who was packing some valuables Monday to move to her permanent home in San Clemente.

Jeanne Clements said that she left early Saturday after waves broke halfway over her mobile home.

“I don’t know how bad it got,” Clements said. “I just left and spent the night at a friend’s house.”