Storm Snarls Traffic, Plays Role in Crash Fatal to 2

The cold, blustery storm that rolled into Southern California from the Gulf of Alaska on Monday dropped snow in the mountains and contributed to at least one fatal crash and hundreds of other accidents.

The rain is expected to stop today, leaving mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-60s, meteorologists said. The rest of the week should be cool and dry, as a mass of arctic air is dragged in behind the rain.

“Having this be so much cooler, so late in the season is what surprises most people,” said Amy Talmage, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which does forecasting for The Times. “You don’t usually see snow in April.”

The showers doused last-minute tax filers, who braved the storm to meet Uncle Sam’s deadline.

“They’re coming in wet,” said Ray Chavira, the postmaster in Oxnard. “If it keeps raining or not, they’re going to have to come in here and file their taxes.”

The storm contributed to a fatal five-car pile-up on the Golden State Freeway in Santa Clarita. California Highway Patrol officers say that at least two people died in the accident about 2:30 p.m., and the southbound lanes remained closed for at least three hours, they said.

During the evening commute Monday, there were about 300 traffic collisions, double the average number of accidents on a typical workday, said a CHP spokeswoman. None of the accidents, she said, resulted in serious injury. The westbound Artesia Freeway in Long Beach was closed for several hours Monday night as the result of seven collisions involving about 25 vehicles.

In Glendora, two teenage boys were swept into a rain-swollen wash and carried three miles before a rescuer tethered to a sheriff’s helicopter plucked them from the water in Azusa. Two others had been able to cling to a branch and pull themselves out.

Late Monday morning in Reseda, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus collided with two vehicles on Sherman Way. Paramedics took a woman to an area hospital with serious injuries, and three others suffered minor injuries.

In the basin, meanwhile, a windy deluge caused a power outage in Santa Monica affecting several hundred customers, said officials at Southern California Edison. The police station had to use a backup system for power, and the courthouse metal detectors went down.

No mudslides were reported in the region, safety officials said.

The storm brought about an inch of rain to the Los Angeles Basin. It also was expected to drop 4 to 8 inches of snow in the high altitudes of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains, where growing numbers of hikers and mountain bikers have been enjoying spring treks up the canyons.

The fury of the storm bore down on the Central California coast. More than 2.5 inches of rain fell in the college town of Goleta, north of Santa Barbara, and 2 inches fell in San Luis Obispo.

The rain hit the Ventura County coast in the early morning hours, crippling the morning commute, said Officer David Webb, spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. Between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., CHP officers scrambled to keep up with more than 200 reported crashes, most of them fender-benders.

“Everyone considered the rainy season over,” Webb said. “Then all of a sudden, we get a big storm like this and people forget their safety rules. Leave a big cushion; slow down. People are just driving around like it’s a bright, sunny day.”

The pelting rain came at a particularly vulnerable time for Ventura County strawberry farmers, though officials don’t expect major damage.

Most growers had hoped to spend a sunny day in the fields picking the ripe berries, which unfortunately have thin skins at this time of year, said Scott Deardorff, an Oxnard farmer.

“We’ve been picking in the rain all day,” Deardorff said.

To the south, San Diego had escaped the rain by the afternoon as the band of moisture stayed to the north, funneling east across the desert toward the Rocky Mountains.

Times staff writer Edgar Sandoval contributed to this story.