Spring Storm Packs Surprising Punch

A surprisingly strong late spring storm descended on the Southland early Monday, bringing with it a swift-water rescue, a minor mudslide in Glendale and power outages in other parts of Los Angeles.

The rain also broke the record for wet weather for the date. By noon, 0.67 inches of rain had fallen on downtown Los Angeles, twice the 1921 record of 0.33 inches, said Stuart Seto, a specialist at the National Weather Service. So far this month, downtown Los Angeles has received nearly four times the average amount of rainfall -- 0.85 inches compared with the 0.22-inch norm.

“Normally this time of year, our storms, if we get any, are usually like a quarter of an inch or so,” Seto said.

The rain caused the Los Angeles River to rise and trap a 40-year-old homeless man who had set up camp on an island near Griffith Park, said Sgt. Tom Lorenz of the Glendale Police Department.

Nearby residents heard the man’s shouts and called police about 10:30 a.m., Lorenz said. A Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter lifted the man to dry land, where Glendale paramedics examined him.

“He was in good spirits,” Lorenz said. “It does not look like he suffered any injuries.”

Elsewhere in Glendale, two homes were evacuated after residents in the 700 block of Glenmore Boulevard reported mud sliding from behind a vacant house perched on nearby Gladys Drive.

“Some runoff came off the street and moved topsoil and mud,” said Capt. Steve Parrish of the Glendale Fire Department.

Officials deemed the situation stable after a city engineer inspected the Gladys Drive property and found that only surface mud had moved.

The evacuated residents returned to their homes about 1 p.m.

Because of safety hazards, the house on Gladys and two houses almost directly below it on Glenmore are unoccupied. The city ordered those residents to move out in January 2005 after a large mudslide damaged the properties.

Earlier Monday, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers in Highland Park, Boyle Heights and near downtown briefly lost power. About 4,000 customers were affected by the outages, caused by malfunctioning conductors or cable equipment, said Gale Harris, a DWP spokeswoman.

In Ventura County, the rain was generally welcome and kind to crops, local agriculture officials said.

“We were drying out after the last rains, so this rain was just enough to soak in. There was no severe flooding or anything like that,” said David Buettner, chief deputy Ventura County agricultural commissioner.

“Overall, it should help the tree growers -- those with avocados and citrus.”

Rob Roy, president of the Ventura County Agriculture Assn., said the county’s strawberry crops were spared.

“The rain was anticipated by the growers. Everyone knew we were going to get an inch or more as of Friday,” Roy said.

The rain is over for now, however. According to the National Weather Service, sunny skies are ahead for most of the week.

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Times staff writer Gregory W. Griggs contributed to this report.