Storm Damage Could Total $500 Million

As mostly sunny skies helped Southern Californians continue to dry out Thursday, a local economist estimated the storm damage in Southern California could reach half a billion dollars.

“Everyone is affected by severe weather, from homeowners to commuters to businesses,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

The National Weather Service put the chance of showers this weekend at 20% or less, some consolation to Southern Californians coping with uninhabitable homes and unnavigable roads.

At Los Angeles City Hall, a civil engineer who died when he fell into a huge storm-caused sinkhole was memorialized. The service to remember Rory Shaw, 47, occurred under partly sunny skies that followed nearly a week of rainstorms that killed at least nine people.

Mayor James K. Hahn noted that Shaw had a reputation among his colleagues for “going beyond expectations.”

Hahn said Thursday night the city has labeled 33 homes uninhabitable, about half in the Glassell Park area, where a hillside is pushing into houses. About 2,500 potholes have been filled since the storm began a week ago, but Hahn noted that was hardly the end of them.

“It’s nice to have a break in the rain, but we know we’re not out of the woods yet,” Hahn said.

Earlier in the week, the Los Angeles City Council voted to set aside $500,000 to help storm-displaced residents find new homes.

Four homes in Pomona were evacuated Thursday because of a mudslide as work crews kept at the daunting task of cleanup after days of deluges.

At Occidental College in Los Angeles, things were getting back to normal after a two-day power outage on two-thirds of the campus interrupted classes -- and just about everything else. Students skipped showers, and some lit candles despite rules forbidding their use in residence halls.

Chemistry professor Chris Craney saved about $10,000 -- and lots of work -- in chemicals and bacterial cell lines stored in a freezer.

He raced to a nearby Home Depot and loaded up on extension cords, which he hooked up to one of the unaffected power sources on campus.

College spokesman Jim Tranquada said a deluge “overwhelmed the drains” and flooded underground high voltage vaults.

In Orange County, contractors hired by the city of Mission Viejo began transferring soil from the top of a hill to the bottom in hopes of sparing six red-tagged homes at its base from further damage.

A home at the top of the hill remained yellow-tagged, meaning it could be entered during daylight hours.

The hill began slipping about four weeks ago. Homeowners will be billed for the work by city crews because the slide occurred on private property, officials said.

Public works officials, scrambling to repair hundreds of miles of streets and highways, said some roads may not be reopened until summer or even fall. In Malibu, where a slide near Big Rock closed Pacific Coast Highway for two miles, bus passengers were disembarking at the barricades and trudging through the mud and rocks for two miles to the other end, officials said.

Times staff writer Sara Lin and wire services contributed to this report.