Wintry Storm Slams Into Southland; 4 Die

Winter blindsided Southern California on Thursday with wind and rain that left four people dead in accidents, slowed freeway traffic to a crawl and triggered a mud slide that destroyed one home and marooned residents of a canyon near Ojai.

National Weather Service forecasters said the weather front should move away to the east overnight--but warned that another storm is expected by this afternoon, with a third waiting in line near Hawaii.

The storm claimed its first two lives Wednesday night when a car carrying 10 people, some of whom were believed to be illegal aliens, swerved across the center line of the rain-slick Ortega Highway, smashed into an embankment and overturned about seven miles east of San Clemente.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Ken Daily said officers found two men dead in the trunk of the car. An injured woman at the scene said the driver and six other passengers had fled. A helicopter from Tustin Marine Corps Air Station later located two injured people in a nearby ravine.

All the injured were taken to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, where they were treated and turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol for return to Mexico. The two dead men were not immediately identified.

Daily said the driver of the car was being sought on felony hit-and-run charges.

Another accident attributed to the storm cost the life of a woman whose car skidded off the transition road from the southbound San Diego Freeway to the southbound Harbor Freeway and overturned, crushing her, Thursday morning. The woman’s identity was withheld pending notification of her family.

And a Saugus man was killed when his van swerved off southbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway and smashed into an emergency call box, ejecting him onto the roadway. The CHP said Kevin English, 18, was pronounced dead at the scene. The victim’s brother, Brian English, arrived a few minutes after the crash and aided officers in identification of the body.

Two adults and two children escaped unhurt early Thursday morning when a mud slide moved their home off its foundation and blocked the access road to Matilija Canyon near Ojai, while other slides in the vicinity filled one automobile with mud and closed several roads and highways including California 33.

Ventura County sheriff’s Lt. Ernie Rogers said some of the people trapped by the slide in Matilija Canyon were evacuated by a sheriff’s helicopter. Some spent the rest of the night with friends, while others went to a Red Cross shelter set up at Nordhoff High School in Ojai.

“We asked the residents if they wished to be evacuated,� Rogers said, “and 21 chose to come out by helicopter. I don’t know how many others decided to stay. There are 70 homes up there, but not all of them are occupied at this time of year.�

Ventura County authorities attributed the mud slides to lack of ground cover in Matilija Canyon, which was one of the places devastated by last summer’s fires.

Lisa Hines of the Ojai Fire Department said four to five inches of rain fell there Wednesday night and Thursday morning, saturating the ground and causing it to move. No injuries were reported in the Thursday slide, but Hines said a careful watch would be kept for other slides in the area as the storms continue.

Other rock and mud slides slowed traffic on Pacific Coast Highway in the Malibu area Thursday morning, but the CHP said the highway remained open.

Freeway Traffic Jam

Flooding closed one lane of the westbound Santa Monica Freeway at Maple Avenue, causing a major traffic jam during the morning rush hour, and the CHP reported other traffic tie-ups throughout the day resulting from accidents caused by the rain.

“We’ve had dozens of minor crashes,� said CHP Officer Manuel Avila. “Everyone’s going too fast for the rain. Oil and dirt comes up to the surface when the rain begins and it makes the roadway very slick. You have to treat it very carefully. . . .�

The Air Support Division of the Los Angeles Police Department had problems too: Patrol helicopters were grounded from time to time during the day when rainfall cut visibility below the department’s minimum standard.

“We try to keep (the helicopters) up as long as we feel it’s safe,� LAPD Sgt. Jim Heintzman said. “But when the rain cuts our visibility sometimes we have to put down until it clears.�

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported blackouts involving about 3,500 customers during the night and morning hours, but spokeswoman Elizabeth Wimmer said power had been restored in most places by Thursday afternoon.

A Southern California Edison spokesman said his company fared better, with only about 100 outages during the storm’s early hours.

Grim on Skid Row

On Los Angeles’ Skid Row, things were grimmer.

Union Rescue Mission spokesman Art Purner said about 900 homeless people were sheltered there overnight, and “all the other missions were wall-to-wall, too.�

Normally, Purner said, the mission handles about 700 people overnight, “but when it rains or is too cold, we let in just as many as we possibly can.�

He said he expects to be full again through the weekend, as the storms continue.

By sundown Thursday, 1.44 inches of rain had fallen at Los Angeles Civic Center, bringing the season total to 5.45 inches--more than three inches below the amount that had fallen by this time last year and 2.54 inches below the 7.99 inches that would be statistically normal for this time of year.

Mt. Wilson Drenched

It was even wetter elsewhere: A drenching 5.11 inches of rain was reported at Mt. Wilson, while Woodland Hills received 2.96 inches, Pasadena had 2.80, Monrovia reported 2.40, San Gabriel received 2.10 and 1.98 fell in Torrance.

The storm seemed to peter out as it stretched southward into Orange County. In Brea, just over the Los Angeles County line, 1.1 inches of rain had fallen by 8 a.m. Thursday, but San Juan Capistrano, 28 miles to the south, received only .28 inch.

Bill Reiter, Orange County public works operations manager, said the rain caused no significant problems for flood control workers. “So far,� he said, “it’s only just what we needed to get things wet again.�

And there was one positive effect: The South Coast Air Quality Management District said the storm had washed the skies clear of pollutants. Thursday’s air quality was good throughout the basin, and continued good air conditions were predicted for today and Saturday.

But the Weather Service said the wind and rain had created real danger for travelers.

Travelers’ advisories were in effect for strong, gusty winds in the mountains and high desert areas of the Southland, while small-craft advisories covered inner and outer coastal waters from Point Conception to the Mexican border.

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center Thursday was 67 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from 69% to 90%, and forecasters said they expected more rain overnight. They also predicted south to southeast winds gusting above 20 m.p.h. at times, high temperature today in the mid-60s, and the chance of rain rising to 80% by tonight.