Winds, Torrential Rains Blast Homes and Motorists : Weather: Roofs are ripped off and freeways clogged as a storm soaks the area. Another is expected next week.

Tornado-like winds ripped off roofs, lightning bolts knocked out electrical power and drenching rain snarled freeways and prompted a flash-flood watch Friday as a powerful spring storm hammered Southern California.

Emergency crews were rushed to Ballona Creek in Marina del Rey in response to reports that a man had fallen into the rain-swollen stream late Friday afternoon, but an initial search proved fruitless. Witnesses said the man apparently fell into the creek near the Overland Avenue overpass in Culver City.

Severe winds hopscotched through the El Sereno district of the city about 4 p.m., tearing roofs from three houses and four commercial structures near Huntington Drive and El Sereno Avenue.

Despite the damage, which was scattered over several blocks, no one was injured, according to Bill Collins, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman.

Nightfall came early Friday as a cold front preceding the main body of the storm moved through Los Angeles in the early afternoon, darkening the skies so much that most motorists had their headlights on by 2 p.m.

Immediately behind the front came heavy, steady rain, flooding intersections and sending water washing over sidewalks throughout the downtown area. More than 0.8 of an inch fell at the Los Angeles Civic Center between 3 and 4 p.m., raising the season’s rainfall total to 18.31 inches, more than 5.5 inches above the normal total for the date.

It was raining even harder in eastern Ventura County and the western end of the San Fernando Valley, and the National Weather Service had issued a flash-flood watch for both areas by midafternoon.

The Army Corps of Engineers closed off the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin, where scores of motorists were trapped by rising floodwaters in February. The area flooded again Friday, but this time no one was caught in the rising water.

Lightning strikes and heavy winds attacked the Palos Verdes Peninsula area, knocking out power to homes and downing tree limbs. Power failures were also reported in Pasadena, Universal City and in Norwalk, where lightning started a house fire in the 12000 block of Kenney Street.

A lightning strike near the courthouse in Simi Valley disrupted live television coverage of the trial of four Los Angeles police officers accused of beating motorist Rodney G. King.

City officials opened nine shelters for the homeless at 6 p.m. Shuttle vans were sent out to collect the homeless at churches, missions, community centers and other pickup points.

A morning pileup involving more than 100 vehicles on Interstate 15 in the Cajon Pass was blamed on blinding rain and fog that reduced visibility to 20 feet in some areas of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Police said at least one person was killed and 46 were injured in the chain-reaction crash about 9:30 a.m. The pileup, which involved five tractor-trailer rigs, a school bus and more than 100 cars, closed the southbound lanes of the freeway for several hours. With alternate routes limited to a few narrow, twisting, two-lane roads, traffic backed up for miles.

In Monrovia, a six-ton dump truck skidded on rain-slick pavement and overturned on the Foothill Freeway shortly before noon, spilling a load of gravel that blocked three of the four eastbound lanes. Traffic had to be diverted onto surface streets while Caltrans crews cleaned up the mess.

In an accident that occurred before the rain began to fall, two people burned to death in Lakewood when a swerving motorist cut off their car, causing it to overturn and burst into flames. A truck hauling tires overturned while trying to avoid the wreckage and it, too, caught fire, but the driver escaped injury.

The California Highway Patrol said thick smoke from the burning tires reduced visibility to zero, forcing closure of the freeway in both directions for more than two hours.

The rain wreaked havoc during much of the heavy Friday evening rush hour, with delays reported on most freeways. The southbound lanes of the Harbor Freeway were flooded with about a foot of runoff about 4 p.m. but cars will still able to creep through.

Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., said the rain should decrease to occasional light showers by this afternoon, with partially cloudy skies expected Sunday and Monday before another strong storm hits Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

He said rainfall from the first storm should total about 1 to 2 inches in most of the metropolitan area, with up to twice that much in some coastal communities and some foothill and mountain areas. As much as a foot of snow is expected at mountain resorts above 6,000 feet.

The second storm should be as strong and a little colder than the first, he said. Rainfall amounts should be about the same, but a foot of snow is expected at some points above 5,000 feet.