Region Braces for Problems as Storm Moves In

A powerful Pacific storm swept the length of California on Wednesday, closing highways and downing power lines in the north and prompting flood warnings across Ventura, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, especially below hills stripped bare in last fall’s wildfires.

The worst of the storm was expected to hit Southern California in the middle of the night.

“It’s still coming,” said Bruce Rockwell, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

A flash-flood watch was issued for most of inland Southern California through this afternoon. The National Weather Service said gale-force winds and heavy surf could flood some low-lying beach communities, and forecasters issued a winter storm watch, warning of heavy snow in the Tehachapi, San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.

Up to 8 inches of rainfall was expected to drench Ventura County through this morning, with the heaviest downpours coming in the foothills and mountains above Simi Valley, Fillmore and Ojai.

Trucks laden with sandbags were stationed in especially vulnerable flood areas Wednesday night, and crews equipped with tractors and dump trucks stood by for deployment.

“We identified the critical areas [after last fall’s fires] and went in there with sandbags,” said Tim Nanson, public works director for Simi Valley. “We reseeded some areas and others we left alone, because they would grow back on their own.

“We’ve done the best we can to be prepared.”

Ron Leidy, 71, has survived six wildfires at his rustic home on a hillside north of Fillmore.

After October’s fires, he spent three days clearing brush and debris from a creek that drains through his one-acre retreat.

A few days ago, forestry crews dug a temporary channel to divert the stream away from his home.

“But this is the first time it’s burned all the way around,” Leidy said Wednesday as he eyed the first raindrops from the oncoming storm.

Down the road, John and Barbara Harm laid plastic sheeting over an entire wing of their ranch-style house.

“Everything that flows through the canyon comes down past us,” said their daughter, Laura Lara. “We’re doing a lot of praying.”

The Ventura County Fire Department had two swift-water rescue teams on standby Wednesday night, and the county Watershed Protection District had placed heavy earth-moving equipment in key burn areas, including Tapo Canyon in Simi Valley and Happy Valley Canyon in Moorpark.

“All our preparation occurred a long time ago,” said Jeff Pratt, director of the watershed district, which planned to monitor the rainstorm overnight from headquarters at the county government center in Ventura.

“All the channels have been cleaned out of debris and are 100% operational. Everything looks like it can handle what’s predicted to come. We’re not anticipating any flooding.”

Meanwhile, a voluntary evacuation order was issued Wednesday afternoon for about 2,500 residents in the Devore, Lytle Creek and Old Waterman Canyon areas in San Bernardino County.

“These are burned areas that have had real problems with flooding,” said Pat Mead, the county’s assistant director of public works. “It will be difficult to evacuate in the middle of the night, so we’re recommending that those who do evacuate do so before it becomes dark.”

Flooding and mudslides during a Christmas Day storm killed 15 people and damaged or destroyed scores of buildings in San Bernardino County.

The American Red Cross set up an evacuation center Wednesday afternoon at the Church of Latter-day Saints on Northpark Boulevard near Cal State San Bernardino.

Staffing of public works and road crews was beefed up in the county in anticipation of trouble during the night.

“There’s never a good time for something like this to hit,” Mead said, “but the middle of the night is very difficult.”

Wednesday’s storm hit Northern California before dawn, snarling freeway and surface street traffic and knocking out electrical power to almost 160,000 customers.

Flights were delayed at San Francisco International Airport, and manhole covers popped off on San Francisco streets as the storm drain system overflowed.

Traffic was rerouted when flooding blocked a low-lying section of Interstate 5, the state’s principal north-south highway, near Sacramento International Airport.

Several streets in Sacramento were blocked by downed trees, and the city’s Discovery Park slowly disappeared beneath the rising waters of the Sacramento and American rivers.

Downed power lines and mudslides closed several other roads, including California 1 in San Mateo County and California 37 near Novato.

The storm is one of several that have invaded the state after the breakup last week of a persistent ridge of coastal high pressure that had been blocking the normal winter onshore flow of wet weather from the Pacific.

Forecasters said the heavy rain should taper off in Southern California late this morning, with scattered showers and a chance of thundershowers in most areas through Friday.

Saturday and Sunday should be dry, but there is a chance of more showers Monday, the weather service said.

Times staff writers Amanda Covarrubias in Ventura County, Lance Pugmire in Los Angeles, Jeff Rabin in Sacramento and the Associated Press in San Francisco contributed to this report.