Desert Flash Flood Claims Life of Marine

A Marine died early Tuesday after being swept away in a flash flood near Twentynine Palms as a tempestuous tropical weather system continued to plague Southern California.

Officials said heavy rains hammered the Marine Corps’ desert training center shortly before midnight Monday, unleashing torrents of muddy water that engulfed a light armored vehicle containing four Marines.

The flood waters ripped Lance Cpl. Javier D. Ponce, 21, of Ontario, Ore., from the vehicle, according to Marine 1st Lt. Patricia Restrepo, a public information officer at the center.

She said Ponce was found downstream about an hour later. He was rushed by helicopter to the Navy hospital in Twentynine Palms, where he was pronounced dead at 2:24 a.m. The cause of death was not immediately determined.

The three other Marines in the vehicle were unharmed, but two enlisted men at the desert training center were hospitalized briefly for observation after lightning struck the ground near them.

Ponce’s death was the second blamed on flash floods spawned by the recent siege of monsoonal weather. On Sunday, a landslide caused by flooding in the San Bernardino Mountains hamlet of Forest Falls claimed the life of 36-year-old Allison Crow and destroyed about 15 homes.

Thundershowers returned to the mountains and deserts of Southern California on Tuesday afternoon.

One set rolled through the Palmdale area about 3 p.m., dropping rain and hail and spinning off winds of up to 50 mph that snapped a number of large trees. There were several lightning strikes, one of which apparently knocked out traffic signals for two miles along California 138.

“There was some flooding in low-lying areas, but the water dissipated fast and there were no reports of damage,” said Sheriff’s Sgt. Larry Mead of the Antelope Valley station.

It rained again in Forest Falls, and a mudslide cut the only road linking the town to the outside world. But residents said there did not appear to be any significant additional damage. Earlier Tuesday, thundershowers triggered minor flooding in the Tehachapi Mountains near the Kern County village of Pine Mountain.

The monsoonal system will start moving east and the weather should start improving today, said Guy Pearson, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

The downtown high today should be about 84, he said, dropping to about 82 on Thursday.

Tuesday’s high temperature in downtown Los Angeles was 86 degrees, 4 degrees below Monday’s top reading and 12 degrees below the record for the date, set in 1990.

Temperatures in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys soared above 100 degrees Tuesday.

A surveyor scrambling up a steep, scrubby hillside in Sun Valley collapsed in the heat around noon. When a team of six firefighters rushed to the scene to hoist him up in a rescue basket, one of them succumbed to the heat as well, crumpling to the ground with severe leg cramps.

Both were rushed to nearby Pacifica Hospital, where they were being treated for dehydration.

Mike Berman, manager of Lamps Plus in Chatsworth, estimated that 80% of his business this week has been ceiling fans.

“When there is a heat wave, that is all they buy,” he said. “A guy came in the other day, with a 15-room house, and he bought a fan for every room.”

The Department of Water and Power said that the people of Los Angeles have been using a bit more electricity than usual in their efforts to stay cool, but that reserves have been more than adequate and that usage has been nowhere near the record set last Sept. 1.

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Times staff writer Hilary MacGregor contributed to this story.

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Heat Relief in Sight

The National Weather Service expects a dip in the jet stream today to push the high temperatures and humidity out of Southern California.