Keep Umbrella Handy--More Rain En Route

After an exceptionally dry and sunny January, thundershowers may round out the month today when another storm, this one more vigorous than the last, hits San Diego County this afternoon.

The windy, cloudy and rainy weather is not expected to disappear for several days, as one moisture-laden storm follows another, the National Weather Service said.

In the Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, wind and rain 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.

Rainfall Wednesday and Thursday was measured at 0.48 of an inch at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field. Today’s storm may bring up to an inch of rain before another storm moves in Saturday night, forecasters said.

Forecaster Wilbur Shigehara said Thursday that satellite pictures showed approaching thundershowers that “normally pack plenty of cold air.” Rain in coldest areas could turn into hail. Showers slowed rush-hour traffic on Interstate 8 Thursday morning and the rain was blamed for about 17 “fender benders” on freeways, California Highway Patrol spokesman Fred Miller said. There were no major injuries.

Although today’s precipitation will increase the amount of rainfall measured at Lindbergh Field this month, it is unlikely it will come near the normal 2.11 inches of rain expected for January. As of 4 p.m. Thursday, total rainfall for this month had reached 0.49.

Gusty winds are expected to continue, and both a travelers advisory in the mountains and a small craft advisory have been extended through the weekend, Shigehara said.

Blustery weather is expected throughout San Diego county, with winds of up to 35 m.p.h. along the coast and in the mountains.

Shigehara said a lull could occur after the storm by Saturday afternoon or evening. The strength of the new storm, expected later Saturday night or Sunday morning, was not predicted Thursday.

Temperatures through Sunday are expected to be in the 60s along the coast and inland valleys, with coastal lows in the 50s and inland lows from 45 to 52 degrees.

Dense fog is expected in the mountains, with mostly cloudy days and rain. Daytime temperatures from 43 to 53 degrees are expected to drop to 32 to 42 degrees at night.

Desert highs from 65 to 73 degrees may dip to the 40s at night.

In the Los Angeles area, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

SAN DIEGO RAINFALL

(9 p.m. at Lindbergh Field)

Rainfall past 24 hours (inches) . . . 0.48

Total rainfall this month . . . 0.49

Total rainfall since July 1 . . . 6.96

Total for this date last year . . . 7.98

Normal rainfall to this date . . . 5.15