Taking Its Toll

The cold, blustery storm that rolled into Southern California on Monday dropped snow in the mountains and caused at least one fatal crash in Santa Clarita and hundreds of other accidents.

The rain is expected to stop today, leaving mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-60s, a meteorologist 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 also contributed to a fatal five-car pileup on the Golden State Freeway in Santa Clarita. California Highway Patrol officers say at least two people died in the accident about 2:30 p.m. Southbound lanes remained closed for at least three hours.

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

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 were inoperative.

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

By midday, just over an inch of rain had fallen in the Santa Monica Mountains, with only a trace in downtown Los Angeles. Newhall received .2 inches and Burbank got just .04.

The weather system was expected to drop 4 to 8 inches of snow in the high altitudes of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains, where hikers and mountain bikers have been enjoying a pleasant spring by heading up the canyons in growing numbers.

But the fury of the storm bore down on the coast. More than 2 1/2 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, CHP Officer David Webb said. Between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., there were more than 200 reports of 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. “The really ripe, very red berries just don’t take this kind of rain very well. So we’ve got to pick every piece of fruit we can.”

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.

Staff writer Edgar Sandoval contributed to this report.