New Storm Sees Fatalities, Record Mountain Snow

A record-setting October storm that moved into the Southland on Tuesday flooded homes, downed power lines and contributed to at least three deaths, authorities said Wednesday.

A school-bound 14-year-old girl and a woman walking to work were killed in separate Orange County accidents that authorities said could probably be blamed on the heavy rains.

A morning downpour may have obscured a Dana Hills High School freshman in a crosswalk on Moulton Parkway in Laguna Niguel. Authorities said she was struck by an SUV, her body tossed more than 200 feet.

In Laguna Beach, a 27-year-old nanny in a crosswalk with her sister was killed when they were struck by an SUV. The surviving sister remained in critical condition. The heavy rain may have prevented the driver from seeing the two women.

The storm, the second powerful Alaska system to move into Southern California this month, lashed Orange County with 1 to 2 inches of rain but caused little property damage. Roads were flooded, police reported dozens of fender benders, and several lanes of Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach were closed during morning rush hour.

In Los Angeles, a swift-water rescue team pulled the body of a 30-year-old man from the gushing Los Angeles River. The nude body was discovered Wednesday morning near North Glendale Boulevard and Glenhurst Avenue. Authorities were working to determine the cause of death, but the injuries suggested that he probably had fallen into the river Tuesday night, said city fire Capt. Rex Vilaubi.

In San Bernardino County, 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 in at least 4 feet of water.

The first Orange County fatality occurred as Cindy Gallegos, a high school freshman, was crossing the street in a heavy shower just before 7 a.m. The girl, who was trying to get to an OCTA bus, was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, which may have made it difficult for the driver who struck her to see her, said Jim Amormino, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

The driver of the SUV, a 42-year-old Laguna Hills man, was not cited.

A woman walking her dog performed CPR on the girl but left the scene before deputies arrived. The teenager was pronounced dead at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center, Amormino said.

News of the girl’s death hit students at Dana Hills High School hard.

“We heard about Cindy when our teacher read an announcement; it was really sad,” said Jordi Portor, 14, a fellow freshman.

Principal Carolyn Williams said grief counselors were brought to campus to help some of the girl’s friends and classmates deal with the tragedy.

Williams instructed teachers to notify their classrooms of the death about 11 a.m. with an announcement that read, in part, “Our hearts go out to Cindy’s family and friends.”

The second fatal accident occurred about a dozen miles away in Laguna Beach when an SUV driven by an 82-year-old Dana Point resident struck two sisters in a crosswalk.

The woman who was killed, Olimpia Ordunez, 27, of Santa Ana, was on her way to work as a nanny for a Laguna Beach family. Ordunez was airlifted to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where she later died, said Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jason Kravetz. Her sister, Yolanda Zainos, 36, was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where she was being treated for head and neck injuries, he said.

The driver, who told police she did not see the pedestrians in the heavy morning downpour, was not cited.

The rainfall broke several local records for the date, including one at John Wayne Airport that had stood for more than two decades. The storm dumped 1.34 inches of rain as of midnight Tuesday, shattering the old record of 0.08 for the same day in 1982, said Miguel Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The storm also dumped up to 2 feet of snow in the San Bernardino Mountains -- a boon to ski resort operators.

“At this exact time last year, we were evacuating” because of raging wildfires, 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 16 to 20 inches of snow, she said. Staffers were busy removing snow from parking lots and preparing to open lifts.

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

“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. Fire-ravaged areas of San Bernardino County were spared major flooding throughout the night, but flood warnings were still in effect late Wednesday for Devore, Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario.

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, officials said.

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.

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.

The forecast calls for rain ending by today’s morning commute, with only an occasional shower or two. Daytime temperatures are expected to be a bit chilly at 56 to 66 degrees, Miller said.

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