Major Storm Strikes Southland

A powerful Pacific storm pummeled Southern California with rain, wind and snow Wednesday, snarling commuter traffic with scores of fender-benders and sending torrents of muddy runoff down normally dry washes and riverbeds.

But despite the heavy runoff, there weren’t many mudslides and rock falls, even below hillsides stripped bare by recent brush fires.

In South Los Angeles, employees fled into downpours when winds tore part of the roof from a church where they worked. The localized gusts slammed into Hamilton United Methodist Church at Figueroa Street and Gage Avenue shortly after 2 p.m., ripping away roofing that landed on cars and shattering several windows in the two-story building. There was one minor injury.

“I’ve seen war,” said Robert Terrell, chairman of the church’s board of trustees. “And this is scary.”

California Highway Patrol officers said they handled 103 traffic accidents in Los Angeles County during the Wednesday morning commute. That compares with 73 on a dry Wednesday morning two weeks ago. It wasn’t as bad as the rainy Wednesday last week, when there were 138 accidents.

“The difference is that people are getting more used to it,” said CHP Officer Wendy Moore. “We’ve had enough rainy days now so people recognize what’s going on and slow down a little.”

Three northbound lanes of the Costa Mesa Freeway were closed briefly in Tustin because of flooding.

Traffic slowed on several major thoroughfares when officials closed streets through the flood-prone Sepulveda Basin in the San Fernando Valley.

“We like to err on the side of safety,” said James Sherman, parking administrator for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

There was a traffic snarl of another sort around Staples Center on Wednesday afternoon as rain-soaked fans--most of them noisy teenagers--packed nearby streets in hopes of a glimpse of their favorite pop stars.

Christine Praet, 16, who had waited for hours, said she was thrilled to finally catch a glimpse of entertainers Ricky Martin, Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez, all of whom waved hello.

Hip-hop artist Kid Rock even hugged a few fans, Praet said.

“It makes it all worth it,” she said.

The view was far different for CHP Officer Roger Moore as he gazed out the window of his office in the San Bernardino Mountains at the snow-frosted forest.

“It’s like a blizzard out there,” he said about 2 p.m. “We’ve had about 6 inches of new snow, and it’s still coming down heavy.”

The CHP closed Interstate 5 in the Grapevine area at 8:20 p.m. because of heavy snow, said spokesman Richard Perez.

“As long as the snow is sticking to the ground, it will be closed,” he said. “When it warms up and the snow starts melting, we’ll start escorting drivers through the area.”

Other major highways in the mountains remained open and clear, including Interstate 15 through the Cajon Pass. However, chains were required for two-wheel-drive vehicles on a number of popular recreational routes, among them California 2 near Wrightwood and California 38 near Big Bear Lake.

By nightfall, the storm had dumped 1.85 inches of rain in Pasadena, 1.65 in Arcadia, 1.52 in Malibu, 1.43 in Burbank, 1.40 in West Covina, 1.36 in Glendale, 1.28 in Oxnard and 1.19 in Thousand Oaks.

In downtown Los Angeles, the storm total was 1.09 inches, raising the total for the meteorological season, which runs from July 1 through June 30, to 7.02 inches.

That’s still only about two-thirds of the normal total of 10.37 inches for the date, but February has been pretty wet, with 5.4 inches of rain in the gauge at USC so far this month.

John Bemus, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said it looks as if there’s more on the way. He said that while today, Friday and Saturday are expected to be dry, there’s a chance of rain again Sunday as a series of low-pressure systems continues to advance across the Pacific toward California.

“The pattern isn’t breaking down,” he said. “There could be more rain again next week.”

The dry weather here during November, December and January has been blamed in large part on La Nina.

But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that pattern, now almost two years old, is finally showing signs of weakening. By this fall, the agency says, the weather patterns could be getting back to normal.

Yet to be factored into this equation are new satellite data showing that the Pacific Ocean may be undergoing a dramatic climate shift--much longer than El Nino-La Nina cycles--that might lead Southern California into decades of abnormally dry weather. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena predict a major impact, while other meteorologists say any such prediction is premature.

Times staff writer Antonio Olivo contributed to this story.