Storm Hits Southland With Snow, Rain, Wind

A powerful Alaskan storm pummeled Southern California with destructive winds, drenching rain and snow up to 6 feet deep Tuesday, downing trees and power lines, flooding low-lying areas and bringing traffic to a standstill.

Hail was reported Tuesday night in several communities, including Santa Monica; snow fell in La Crescenta; and lightning struck two jetliners approaching Los Angeles and Burbank.

About 200 vehicles were stranded overnight on Interstate 5 in the Tehachapi Mountains as plows struggled unsuccessfully to keep ahead of snow that sometimes fell at the rate of more than 6 inches an hour. The snow forced the closure of I-5, the state’s principal north-south highway, at about 10 p.m. Monday, and officials said the route probably won’t reopen until today.

Four people trapped by snow for several days in their cabin above Mt. Wilson were rescued by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department helicopter Tuesday afternoon. Earlier Tuesday, work crews used snowplows to clear a road to Mile High Camp, behind Mt. Wilson, where 180 high school students from Long Beach were marooned by the snow.

At least 26,000 Southland homes and businesses were without power for hours as winds gusting at up to 75 mph felled trees and power lines throughout Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties. Inoperative traffic signals contributed to tie-ups that lasted most of the day.

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, about 15,000 Department of Water and Power customers were still without power, and late-night lightning storms delayed repairs, said DWP spokeswoman Winifred Wancy.

About 40 boats at a marina in San Pedro were ripped free of their moorings by the winds, which severely battered two docks. Several of the boats had major damage, and about 20 people who live aboard them had to seek shelter elsewhere.

Passengers aboard a United Airlines jet on a final approach to Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday night saw a bolt of lightning hit one of the plane’s engines.

“It jostled the plane, and there was a loud bang, a big red flash,” said Curt Gray, 32, who was on the plane that landed safely about 10 minutes later. “It got people’s attention.”

A Southwest Airlines jetliner was struck by lightning about 10 miles west of Burbank Airport but landed safely, authorities said.

In Santa Monica, residents were pounded by an inch of hail about 8:15 p.m., which “came down with a roaring thunder on my roof,” said David Auch, 37. “I made a snowman and my neighbors had a snowball fight. It seemed like I was back in Michigan.”

Although the heavy rain brought the season’s total to more than normal for the date in Los Angeles, the northern part of the state, which provides the bulk of the water used by Californians, is still drier than usual.

The persistent winter storm that rumbled in Sunday is expected to finally taper off today.

Skies should be partly clear Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but forecasters said another storm from the Gulf of Alaska could bring more rain and snow by late in the weekend.

The vehicles stranded overnight on the I-5 near Gorman included a busload of children and teenagers from a Merced church. The passengers, ages 4 to 19, and their 13 adult chaperons were returning from a trip to Disneyland when their bus foundered in about 3 feet of snow.

The children removed wet shoes and clothing and used blankets and sleeping bags to keep warm.

“They weren’t afraid, but they just wondered if anyone was coming,” California Highway Patrol Sgt. Jack Skaggs said later.

After several hours of waiting, one parent used a cellular phone to summon help. Rescuers couldn’t reach the church bus with four-wheel-drive vehicles, so the Kern County Search and Rescue Team brought in snow tractors, and the children were taken to a motel.

Firefighters checked on other stranded motorists throughout the night, but many of them opted to stay in their cars.

Towing companies were caught off-guard by the unusually heavy snow.

“When I got up at 4:30 a.m., it was 2 feet of snow in Lebec,” said Toni Bader, office manager for Interstate Towing in Gorman. “We usually get a dusting, not feet of snow. It was a big shock.”

The snow forced the closure of all schools in the Antelope Valley and shut down the Antelope Valley Freeway between the San Fernando Valley and the Antelope Valley for almost 12 hours. The freeway reopened at 10 a.m. Tuesday, but because of the continuing snow in the Tehachapi Mountains, the CHP advised motorists avoiding I-5 to detour instead up U.S. 101 through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

Sheriff’s deputies said the family trapped for four days in their cabin behind Mt. Wilson decided to call for help when they started running low on food. The deputies said one of the four, Eleazar Bautista, 58, suffers from diabetes and had run out of insulin.

The helicopter transporting Bautista and his relatives to safety spotted and rescued Jose Garcia, 37, whose car had become stuck in the snow on the Angeles Crest Highway. Garcia also is a diabetic and was in need of insulin, deputies said.

Scores of secondary roads in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains were either closed by the snow or open only to vehicles with four-wheel-drive and chains.

“It’s been snowing up there off and on all day,” CHP Officer Curtis Higgins said as he surveyed the situation from the patrol’s traffic management center in San Bernardino.

Snow depths for the storm included 6 feet at Mount Baldy, 5 feet at Wrightwood and 3 feet on Mt. Wilson. In some areas, the snow level dropped as low as 1,200 feet. Snow and ice on antennas atop Mt. Wilson interrupted broadcasting by radio station KPCC in Pasadena.

Higgins said that among the scores of traffic accidents he was monitoring was a multi-vehicle pileup on the Riverside Freeway in Corona that had closed most lanes of the freeway.

In Orange County, a eucalyptus tree and two utility poles, felled by strong winds, shut down Laguna Canyon Road from El Toro Road to Forest Street, said Sgt. Darin Lenyi of the Laguna Beach Police Department.

By midafternoon, Lenyi said, crews had cleaned the debris and reopened the road. Some neighbors lost phone and cable service for several hours.

Two northbound lanes of the I-5 were closed by flooding in the Laguna Woods area, and one southbound lane of the freeway was closed by runoff near Irvine.

The National Weather Service said the 24-hour rainfall total in the downtown Los Angeles rain gauge at 4 p.m. Tuesday was 1.93 inches. That raised the total for the season, which runs from July 1 through June 30, to 10.68 inches. The normal total for the season by Feb. 13 is 9.26 inches.

Other daily rainfall totals as of 4 p.m. included 2.61 inches in Chatsworth, 2.38 inches in Torrance, 2.07 inches in Hawthorne, 1.80 inches in Van Nuys and 1.79 inches in Oxnard.

The Weather Service reported storm totals earlier in the day of 7.32 inches of rain at Live Oak Dam in the foothills above San Dimas and 5.51 inches in Haines Canyon, in the hills above the San Fernando Valley.

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Times staff writers Carol Chambers, Sabrina Decker, Annette Kondo, Caitlin Liu, Roberto J. Manzano, Nedra Rhone and Martha L. Willman in the San Fernando Valley, and staff writer Matt Ebnet in Orange County contributed to this story.

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Under the Weather

Snow forced the closure of Interstate 5 at 10 p.m. Monday, and officials said the route probably won’t reopen until today. Rain drenched the area again Tuesday.

Daily rainfall totals (in inches for the 24-hour period ending 4 p.m. Tuesday)

Chatsworth: 2.6

Downtown L.A.: 1.9

Hawthorne: 2.1

Oxnard: 1.8

Torrance: 2.4

Van Nuys: 1.8

L.A. season total to date: 10.7

Normal total to date: 9.3

Snowfall totals (in feet for the storm as of 4 p.m. Tuesday)

Mt. Baldy: 6

Mt. Wilson: 3

Wrightwood: 5

Source: National Weather Service