Rains Make Up for Dry Winter Season

Rainclouds barreling in from Hawaii lashed the Los Angeles region Tuesday, causing untold headaches for commuters tormented by roads clogged with accidents, covered with mud and partly closed due to flooding.

But forecasters, who were monitoring a second front swinging south from the Oregon Coast, warned late in the day that the worst of the storm may be yet to come.

The damage inflicted was evident in the heavy volume of traffic accidents reported to the California Highway Patrol and police. There were at least two deaths, including a 40-year-old Orange man who died in an early morning spin-out on the Costa Mesa Freeway in Orange County and a man in his 60s who was killed in a four-car crash in Granada Hills that left another man in critical condition.

Another collision disabled two loaded school buses at Pico Boulevard and Beverly Drive in West Los Angeles--two middle school students and a bus driver were treated for minor injuries--and a chain reaction pile-up on the Golden State Freeway damaged a Range Rover driven by pop music star Barry Manilow.

Between its arrival Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon, the storm dumped over 2.6 inches of rain at the Civic Center. The foothills of the San Gabriel Valley and Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties bore the brunt of the drenching, with some areas reporting four to five inches of rainfall in 24 hours.

The downpour quickly compensated for what had been an unusually dry winter. While rainfall in Los Angeles had reached only half its normal level for the season on Monday, by Tuesday the area had received 70% of its seasonal average.

“This storm has really done some work,” said Bruce Rockwell, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “It would be very rare to go from a very dry year to an average year with one storm, but we are within striking distance.”

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According to Rockwell, the storm system could drop another two to four inches on the region Wednesday and cause sporadic thunderstorms before blowing south on Thursday.

Tuesday was a hectic morning for the California Highway Patrol. From 5 to 9 a.m. the CHP received 268 accident calls, a spokesman said. By contrast, last Tuesday--during dry, balmy weather--there were only 67 incidents during the morning commute period.

The first weather-related fatality occurred about 4:30 a.m. when Gerald Silver, 40, of Orange, lost control of his 1993 Nissan on the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway at La Veta Avenue. The tires on Silver’s car were in poor condition, CHP officials said.

The fender-bender involving Barry Manilow occurred about 12:20 p.m. on the southbound Golden State Freeway at 4th Street. Manilow was driving alone in his Range Rover when a large truck two vehicles behind him set off a chain reaction of collisions by rear-ending the car behind Manilow.

That car rear-ended Manilow, who in turn rear-ended the car in front of him.

“There was moderate rear-end damage to his vehicle,” said CHP spokesman Rob Lund. “It was drivable, but he requested a tow.” The singer was not injured.

Two drivers also received minor injuries on the Golden State Freeway near Santa Clarita. A semi-trailer mail truck and a pickup careened off the northbound freeway at Gavin Canyon before noon after the pickup spun out of control in front of the truck, said CHP Sgt. Steve Munday.

Two lanes of the freeway were closed for three hours as rescue crews worked to clear the wreckage.

Throughout the region, debris and pools of water closed portions of heavily traveled roads. In the San Fernando Valley, localized flooding closed a lane of the Simi Valley Freeway at Tampa Avenue for two hours. Hazardous conditions also slowed traffic on Angeles Crest Highway when rocks and mud tumbled into the road.

Treacherous storm waters threatened an 8-year-old boy who had to be rescued from a Saugus wash after he became stuck in the knee-deep mud. The boy, Jason Marrow of Saugus, was treated for mild hypothermia after sheriff’s deputies dug him out of the muck shortly after 4:30 p.m., deputies said.

In the Valley, the streets through Sepulveda Basin were shut down in anticipation of flooding late Tuesday afternoon. Police said Burbank Boulevard between the San Diego Freeway and Havenhurst Drive might remain closed until Monday, or as long as it takes for the flood waters to recede.

Helen Wike, 62, found the going plenty rough in a parking lot behind the Hostess Thrift Store on De Soto Street in Chatsworth. Driving behind the store to park, Wike plowed into a 3-foot-deep puddle, stalling her car and causing water to rush in up to the lower edge of her windows.

When it’s not raining, the deep pavement dip is a loading and unloading spot for the store.

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Wike said she was unable to afford auto damage insurance because she has been unemployed for more than three years and living on her husband’s $127 per month pension. She avoided buying milk while shopping at a grocery store Tuesday morning, knowing she could get it about 50 cents per gallon cheaper at the Hostess Store, she said.

“If this car is really totaled I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said. “I just don’t know what I’ll do. After the rains stop, I guess I’ll pump up my bike tires.”

Others, like Dan Frankel, 29, were inconvenienced only slightly.

“Washed my car on Saturday. The place was empty and I thought I was making out like a bandit. Now I know why,” Frankel said as he ate lunch in Topanga Plaza mall.

Times correspondent Stephanie Brommer contributed to this story.