February 21, 2005
San Francisco

Photo: A house, that collapsed during an earlier rainstorm, is fenced off as cars pass by Saturday, Feb.19, 2005, in the Studio City section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Phil McCarten)

California's latest series of storms turned deadly when separate rockslides killed an elderly man and a teenage girl while a city worker plunged into an enormous sinkhole caused by the rain, authorities said Monday.

The heavy rains also prompted evacuations in several Southern California communities, including La Conchita, a tiny oceanside town where 10 people were killed last month by a mudslide.

The girl, identified as 16-year-old Caitlin Oto, was in her bedroom when large boulders crashed through the walls and roof of her family's apartment in the rural Silverado area east of Irvine, said Joseph Luckey, supervising deputy coroner.

Her mother and stepfather were unhurt in the slide, which also damaged an adjacent store and shed, he said.

Soaking rain also triggered a mudslide that ripped into a suburban Woodland Hills home in Los Angeles early Monday, burying and suffocating an unidentified man, coroner officials said.

Elsewhere, a repair worker late Sunday fell into a 30-foot deep sinkhole created by the storm in the city's Sun Valley area, said Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Kelley.

Firefighters recovered the body Monday morning after delaying the effort several hours because of downed power lines near the chasm, about 40-feet wide and 100-feet long, she said. The victim was not immediately identified.

The deaths came as another wintry mix of rain, snow and hail started battering Southern California Sunday night.

As much as 3 inches of rainfall was expected along the coast and 5 inches in foothill areas before the storm began tapering off Monday afternoon, said Andrew Rorke, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. The mountains could see up to 2 feet of snow.

In La Conchita, about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, six families elected to leave overnight because of heavy rain and a steady mudflow on the bluffs behind the town, said Capt. Bill Flanagan of Ventura County Sheriff's Department. Ventura County does not issue mandatory evacuation orders, he said.

Photo:  Large sheets of plastic are used to help prevent erosion around hillside homes as forecast of rain continues Saturday, Feb. 19, 2005, in the Studio City section of Los Angeles. Powerful thunderstorms hammered already saturated Southern California on Saturday with soaking rain and hail, flooding roads and homes, knocking out power to thousands of customers and raising the threat of mudslides. (AP Photo/Phil McCarten)

In Glendale, about 30 people in 11 homes were evacuated early Monday because of mudslides and flooding. Three homes on an unstable hill were evacuated in Pasadena.

Sporadic showers were forecast from Monday night through early Tuesday, when a low-pressure system parked off the coast would move inland and bring yet another round of fierce thunderstorms, he said.

Farther north, an inch of rain was predicted in the San Francisco Bay area, with up to 18 inches of snow forecast for the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

A year of record rainfall has pushed downtown Los Angeles' totals to nearly 30 inches since July 1, marking its seventh wettest season, said NWS forecaster Curt Kaplan. The record, 38.18 inches, was set in 1883-1884.

Since Thursday, storms have dumped 6.13 inches of rain downtown while spawning two small tornadoes and causing mudslides, flash flooding and blackouts throughout the region.

Heavy rain forced closure Monday morning of some Metrolink commuter train service along the Ventura County line north of Moorpark.

As many as 170,000 customers have had their power interrupted since Friday and about 2,800 customers remained without power Sunday night, primarily in the South Bay area, said Steve Conroy, a spokesman for Southern California Edison.

Crews were being put in place to react to heavy rain, lightning and strong winds, Conroy said.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, a stretch of the famous Sunset Strip lost power, with patrons of the Laugh Factory watching comedy as the lights flickered on and off.

A flash flood watch was issued for southern Santa Barbara County and all of Los Angeles and Ventura counties through Tuesday evening.

A landslide advisory effective through Monday was also issued by the U.S. Geological Survey for San Diego, Riverside, Orange, San Bernardino, Ventura, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, particularly for recent burn areas.

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