Art Umbrella Kills 1 in First Autumn Rain

The first rainstorm of autumn pelted Southern California on Saturday with a steady, wind-driven downpour that caused many accidents on slickened freeways and toppled some of the artist Christo’s huge umbrellas in the Tejon Pass, killing a spectator and injuring two others.

Christo project officials said that workers would begin dismantling the artwork Sunday and that the umbrellas will remain furled in memory of the victim.

The storm also caused a major traffic accident in the Newhall area of Los Angeles County, touched off funnel cloud sightings near Fresno and dumped a foot of snow on parts of the Sierra Nevada.

Downpours flooded streets in Stockton and spurred conservation workers to shore up hillsides in the fire-ravaged East Bay area of Oakland, where there were fears of mudslides.

After several summer-like weekends, some areas of Orange County received a spattering of rainfall. Santa Ana recorded the most precipitation, with 0.07 of an inch. Anaheim had 0.02, Newport Beach registered 0.01, and there were slight showers in El Toro and San Juan Capistrano.

The rain also sparked dozens of fires at electrical poles in some areas of central and north Orange County, cutting off power to dozens of homes and keeping firefighters and Southern California Edison crews busy throughout the night.

Meteorologists predicted only a slim chance of rain today, with temperatures in the 60s and partly sunny skies. Saturday’s county temperatures ranged from a high of 70 to a low of 54.

Moving southeasterly across the state, the storm raised hopes for a wet rainy season that would ease California’s five-year drought. And its ferocity surprised weather experts because it came far in advance of an easterly moving cold front.

“It’s way in front of the main weather system,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Dick Hickey. “That means the rain will probably be prolonged into at least Sunday morning.”

Stephanie Hunter, an expert with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, suggested that such prolonged rainfalls are needed in continued doses to make up for the lagging rainfall totals of recent years. “This is the kind of rainfall you want a lot of,” she said.

Traffic tie-ups were reported in parts of Orange County as vehicles slid into each other in the rain, a spokeswoman for the California Highway Patrol said.

A three-car collision on the eastbound Riverside Freeway shut down three lanes near Imperial Highway in Anaheim Hills for about 20 minutes Saturday afternoon, the CHP reported.

In the Lake Tahoe area, more than a foot of snow fell, and 2 to 4 inches of snow dropped on parts of Northern California and western Nevada.

In the umbrella accident, one of the 488-pound structures, designed to withstand winds up to 65 m.p.h. when opened, broke loose in strong winds.

It struck a 33-year-old Camarillo woman and knocked her 45 feet down a rocky hillside overlooking the Golden State Freeway near Digier Road in Kern County, authorities said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Two brothers--ages 14 and 16--also suffered minor injuries and were treated at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, officials said. Their names were not released.

Aside from a Christo worker who broke her ankle, these were the first injuries on the $26-million art project.

A crowd of a dozen spectators--among the estimated 45,000 who came Saturday--saw the accident which occurred shortly after 5 p.m., as Christo workers were furling the 1,760 umbrellas because of gusty winds, estimated by weather forecasters and law enforcement officials at 40 m.p.h. to 65 m.p.h.

“Suddenly it got windy, we felt the moisture, the rain, the cold. Lots of things were starting to blow,” said Chuck Buck of La Jolla. “And suddenly there was this snap and this horrible sight.

“I heard this loud bang, and I saw the umbrella just lift up,” he said.

Augie Huber, the general contractor on the art project, described the fatal gust as a “freak wind.” Several other umbrellas downwind from the toppled umbrella also fell over. The base and supports for the umbrella that struck the woman came entirely out of the ground.

At the time of the incident, California Highway Patrol officers were warning spectators to stay away from the umbrellas.

Christo, who was in Japan at the time of the accident but is returning to the United States, issued a statement saying that the umbrellas here and in Japan would be closed “out of respect to (the woman’s) memory.”

Christo spokeswoman Chris Pennella said later that workers would begin dismantling the project today and that the umbrellas would remain furled until the scheduled closing Oct. 30.

Times staff writers Gebe Martinez, Davan Maharaj, Greg Braxton, David Colker, Berkley Hudson and Jim Herron Zamora contributed to this story.