Rainy Season Says Hello

The first major storm of the rainy season dumped up to 3 1/2 inches of precipitation on Southern California on Friday morning, flooding homes, streets and highways and collapsing part of the roof at the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park.

Police said there were twice as many traffic accidents as usual, and slick pavement slowed commuter routes to a crawl.

In Seal Beach, one of two city pumps used to clear water burned up at 5 a.m., and the other delayed taking up the slack, causing flooding around Electric Avenue, 1st Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

John Nelson, a resident of the Seal Beach Trailer Park on 1st Street, said he believes the pump began failing around 1:30 a.m., when he heard explosions outside. At 5:30 a.m., when he heard firetrucks, he opened his door to see 30-foot flames and ankle-high water, he said.

“It was pretty scary seeing that so close to my house. They were high flames. It was strange,” he said.

Clogged drains caused flooding up to 3 feet deep in Sunset Beach, and water several feet deep closed lanes of the Long Beach Freeway in Long Beach from 2:30 a.m. until about 8:30 a.m.

In Sunset Beach, Wayne Segal pushed his car to higher ground on one side of Pacific Coast Highway, which was shut from Warner Avenue to Anderson Street, and vacuumed the carpets, still covered with an inch of water.

“It’s God’s sign that winter is coming,” he said, holding his vacuum to the sky.

In Buena Park, Orange County Fire Authority officials got a call at 6 a.m. alerting them to the collapse of a 20-foot-by-30-foot section of the roof of the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park.

“Luckily for all of us, the exhibits were not affected,” said authority spokesman Dennis Shell, who reported the roof fell over the administrative offices.

In Seal Beach, public works employees hacked away at the charbroiled remains of the pump, as city officials scurried to get a second pump up before nightfall, when more rain was expected.

Officials said they were not sure what caused the fire and were investigating residents’ statements about the repeated explosion sounds.

At the Radisson Inn Seal Beach, guests waded through the parking lot to their flooded cars, while others rode the bellhop’s cart in an effort to stay dry. Employees worked for four hours with vacuums and brooms to clear the waist-high water, but the hotel’s computer system remained damaged, said receptionist Brandy Lara.

There were no official tallies of how many people were affected, but unofficial estimates indicated that at least 100 homes, cars or garages were flooded.

“We were lucky,” said Dennis Root, a street worker. “Another hour of hard rain and it might have gotten into more houses. It was bad, but it was controlled quickly.”

A neighbor woke up James Honn and wife Brandee at 4 a.m. to warn them about the rising water near their Seal Beach apartment complex. Two of the couple’s three cars were saved but one was inoperable. The Honns began pushing it through waist-high water to higher ground.

“It was cold water. I couldn’t feel my feet for a while. It was numbing,” said James Honn.

As usual, the first big storm of the year meant a spike in pollution at the beaches.

Spewing from storm drains around the region were the fertilizer, antifreeze, grease and other waste that had accumulated on yards and streets throughout the summer.

County health officials issued advisories, warning people not to swim in the ocean for several days because of elevated bacteria levels.

“This would be considered the first flush,” said James Alamillo, spokesman for Heal the Bay. “Swimmers and beach-goers should definitely stay out of the water for the next three days.”

Chad Pettera, a meteorologist with WeatherData, Inc., said no rain is expected today , but skies should start clouding up again late tonight, with as much as half-an-inch more rain in some areas of the Los Angeles Basin before the storm moves out Sunday night.