Storm Drops 2 Feet of Snow in Mountains, Takes Toll in Cities

A record-setting October storm dropped up to 2 feet of snow in the San Bernardino Mountains -- a boon to ski resort operators -- but also flooded homes, downed power lines and contributed to at least three deaths in lower elevations.

For mountain residents, the blanket of white was a far cry from last year, when Southland wildfires were raging.

“At this exact time last year, we were evacuating,” said Kim Hermon, assistant marketing director for Big Bear Mountain Resorts, which plans to open at least one of its two resorts by Friday.

“We didn’t plan on opening until Thanksgiving, so this is definitely the earliest we’ve opened in quite a few years,” Hermon said. “We’ll have a ski by Halloween.”

By noon Wednesday, the resorts had received 16 to 20 inches of snow, she said. Staffers were busy removing snow from parking lots and getting lifts ready for opening.

Steve Overmyer, owner of a construction firm in Running Springs, was dispatching snowplows Wednesday. “I don’t think I’ve ever plowed in October,” he said. “This is incredibly out of the ordinary for the 25 to 30 years I’ve been here.”

Meteorologists were at a loss to explain it. The storm front originated in Alaska, and usually such storms don’t reach Southern California, said forecaster Miguel Miller.

“This very cold system from Alaska just decided to drop right on down,” he said. In 1999, he said, 2 feet of snow fell in Big Bear Lake over the entire month of October, the most for that period since record-keeping began there in 1960.

“Two feet fell today, which means we’ve tied the monthly record in one day,” Miller said.

In the lowlands, consequences were more serious.

In Los Angeles, a swift-water rescue team pulled the body of Stuart Gil Velasquez, 22, from the Los Angeles River. The nude body was discovered in the gushing river Wednesday morning near North Glendale Boulevard and Glenhurst Avenue. Authorities were working to determine the cause of death, but the injuries suggested that Velasquez, who was homeless, had fallen into the river Tuesday night, said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Rex Vilaubi.

In Orange County, a 14-year-old girl and a woman were killed early Wednesday in separate accidents blamed in part on heavy rain.

Cindy Gallegos, a student at Dana Hills High School, was crossing Moulton Parkway in a crosswalk on her way to school when an SUV struck her, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman said.

In Laguna Beach, two sisters were also in a crosswalk when another SUV hit them. Olimpia Ordunez, 27, of Santa Ana was on her way to work as a nanny for a Laguna Beach family when she was killed. Her sister, Yolanda Zainos, 36, was hospitalized, and her condition wasn’t disclosed.

Neither driver was cited.

In San Bernardino County on Tuesday, the body of 49-year-old Jeffrey Michael Nist was found partially submerged in mud and trees by crews clearing debris from a Lytle Creek wash area.

Authorities believe Nist, who they think was homeless, was swept away last week, when storms dumped more than 3 inches of rain, which submerged a section of Lytle Creek Road.

Also in San Bernardino County, Interstate 215 north of Muscoy was closed in both directions Wednesday evening following a mudslide, and crews were working into the night to clear the roadway.

Earlier, fire officials said, 11 homes sustained minor to moderate damage from falling trees and branches. More than 2,000 people had power outages throughout the day.

High winds knocked down power lines, leaving about 1,100 people without power in Forest Falls, which is in the mountains of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area, and 1,200 in and around Lake Arrowhead, according to Southern California Edison spokesman Marlon Walker.

In Riverside County, heavy rain Wednesday morning briefly stranded four adults and three children in a vehicle that strayed into flowing water near the intersection of Trumble and McLaughlin roads in the community of Sun City, near Perris.

A water rescue team removed all seven from their car, left disabled in 4 feet of water.

Flooding and downed power lines were reported throughout the Los Angeles area, and at least two waterspouts were spotted over the ocean, fire officials said.

Times staff writers Sandra Murillo, Lance Pugmire and Jason Felch contributed to this report.