February 23, 2005
LA Times
By Daryl Kelley and Eric Malnic, Times Staff Writers

Photo: A funnel cloud is seen over the Pacific Ocean off Venice Beach in Los Angeles Tuesday morning, Feb. 22, 2005. Waterlogged Californians braced for even more rain Tuesday as they struggled to recover from storms that have left at least nine people dead, triggered mudslides and tornadoes, and washed away roads and runways statewide. Despite brief glimpses of sun, a flash flood watch was in effect across much of Southern California on Tuesday. A tornado warning was also issued for coastal areas and waterspouts were seen off the coast, according to the National Weather Service. (AP Photo/Chris Kim)

A winter storm that has battered Southern California over the past six days was expected to diminish across the region today.

As showers drifted this morning over a wide swath of the Southland, a flood watch was issued for Los Angeles and Ventura counties until 9 a.m. Forecasters also warned that possible heavy rains left many areas vulnerable to rockslides and mudslides, as mountains in those counties could receive up to an inch per hour at elevations of 5,000 feet.

The storm was the latest to hit the Southland, which has been doused with one of its wettest seasons on record, leading to nine deaths and causing millions in damage.

Mayor James K. Hahn urged President Bush to declare a federal disaster in Los Angeles, where damage to public and private structures, including at least 96 homes made uninhabitable, was estimated at $10 million. The mayor's office said 27 homes had been red-tagged (entry is prohibited) and 69 had been yellow-tagged (entry is restricted).

Photo: Workers try to protect the edge of the Santa Paula Airport runway from the flooded Santa Clara River. (Stephen Osman / LAT)

Since the first of the year, storm-related damage to roads and public facilities in Los Angeles County has been at least five times that much, more than $52 million, said Donald Wolfe, interim director of the county's Public Works Department.

On Tuesday, officials said floodwaters from the Santa Clara River had carved away about 150 feet of pavement and runway at Santa Paula Airport in Ventura County, closing the airfield indefinitely.

Dozens of roads throughout Southern California were blocked by mud, snow, rocks and debris. Officials said it could be several more days before full Amtrak rail service is restored between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

Photo: Four homes on an unstable hill in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles, are seen Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005. The four homes were cordoned off and evacuated in the 6700 block of Fortune Place earlier Tuesday, because the soil under them was slipping away. Waterlogged Californians braced for even more rain Tuesday as they struggled to recover from storms that have triggered mudslides and tornadoes, and washed away roads and runways. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Homes that had previously started to slide continued to inch downhill. A bluff moved slightly behind La Conchita, the Ventura County coastal community where 10 people died in a Jan. 10 mudslide, but there were no reports of injuries or additional damage.

Threatened tornadoes and massive cloudbursts failed to materialize Tuesday, and for the first time in a week, forecasters were talking about a little sunshine by Thursday.

The National Weather Service said that although there could be scattered showers today and tonight, dry weather was expected Thursday, Friday and Saturday. However, forecasters said the sunshine will be mixed with clouds, and there's a chance of rain again by Sunday night.

Photo: In Bel Air, a hillside swimming pool lies in a ravine after breaking away from a house. (Francine Orr / LAT) February 22, 2005

Total rainfall for the season in downtown Los Angeles climbed to 33.09 inches by 4 p.m. Tuesday, making this the fourth rainiest season ever recorded. The city is about 5 inches short of the record for an entire season of 38.18 inches, set in 1883-84. Rainfall seasons, which typically average about 15 inches in Los Angeles, run from July 1 to June 30.

There were at least five storm-related deaths in Southern California since last week, including a man buried in a mudslide in Woodland Hills, a civil engineer who fell into a massive sinkhole in Sun Valley, a girl crushed by falling rocks in Orange County and two men who died in auto accidents in the Inland Empire.

Los Angeles County

Photo: A 40-foot-deep sinkhole kept Tujunga Avenue closed in Sun Valley. One road worker fell into the sinkhole and was killed. Officials said it could take six weeks to fix the 100-foot-wide hole. (Genaro Molina / LAT) February 21, 2005

In Pico Rivera, a woman was pulled to safety from waist-deep water in the Rio Hondo on Tuesday afternoon by a Sheriff's Department helicopter. It was not immediately clear how the woman got into the river. She was taken to a hospital for observation, deputies said.

More than 50 roads and freeway lanes in the county remained closed or restricted by storm damage, officials said.

They included several portions of Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica and Malibu; Malibu Canyon Road; various lanes of Interstate 5 in Norwalk, Santa Clarita and Castaic; a southbound lane of the Antelope Valley Freeway in Newhall; a westbound lane of the Pomona Freeway in the City of Industry; a southbound lane of the Corona Expressway near Pomona; an eastbound lane of the Artesia Freeway in Long Beach; California 39 above Azusa; Angeles Crest Highway above La Cascada Flintridge; California 138 in the Antelope Valley; and Bouquet Canyon Road, Lake Hughes Road, San Francisquito Canyon Road and Sierra Highway in the Santa Clarita area.

Concerns about possible mudslides will keep the northbound tracks of the Metro Gold Line between the Mission and Southwest Museum stations closed for the rest of the week. Trains traveling in both directions will use a single track, slowing service. Service on the Metro Red, Blue and Green lines, interrupted sporadically over the weekend, is back to normal.

Officials were keeping an eye on several properties that had suffered slide damage earlier, including homes in Woodland Hills, Hacienda Heights, Highland Park, Silver Lake, La Cascada Flintridge, Pasadena and Bel-Air.

A winter storm watch was issued for the San Gabriel Mountains, where as much as 8 feet of snow had fallen since last week.

Ventura County

Photo: A flooded Santa Clara River weaves into Santa Paula Airport, eroding the main runway. Santa Paula officials struggled to divert the river's path and said the damage may mean the airport will have to close indefinitely.
(Stephen Osman / LAT)

Walter Marple, owner of an airplane maintenance and repair facility at Santa Paula Airport, said the Santa Clara River had been rising steadily since the latest spate of storms struck last week.

"Normally, it's about 20 feet wide. Now, it's more like 600 feet wide," Marple said. "It's been eating away at the runway for a couple of days, and finally, it washed a big section away."

Marple said the washout closed down all operations at the airport, which is home to about 300 light planes.

Rowena Mason, president of the Santa Paula Airport Assn., said crews using heavy equipment had apparently stopped the river's advance by midafternoon.

"Clearly, we're going to rebuild somehow, some way," she said. "I'm told the Corps of Engineers came in here after the '69 floods and built groins on the east part of the airport that held this time. So I'm hoping the Army Corps will come in again."

The airport may be best known for a helicopter accident in 1991 that injured actor Kirk Douglas. For many years, Actor Steve McQueen also kept a plane there.

In La Conchita, the hillside that had held up well during six days of rain slumped a little Tuesday, worrying some of the residents.

"We have an area above a couple of houses in the center of town that has moved," said Mike Bell, unofficial spokesman for the beleaguered community. "It hasn't reached the houses, but if it rains any more, it probably will."

Orange County

Photo: A house lies in pieces after collapsing from soil erosion as cars pass by in Studio City. (Brendan McDermid / EPA) February 21, 2005

At least 12 homes in the county were still threatened by slow-moving landslides.

A 67-foot-tall bluff in Mission Viejo was edging toward seven houses at a rate of 2 inches to 3 .inches per day, buckling pool decks and causing three-inch cracks in one home, officials said.

They said that if the weather lets up today, bulldozers will be brought in to shore up the slope.

In Laguna Beach, four homes had been evacuated because of slides, and in Anaheim Hills, a luxury home was inching downhill as its water-soaked foundation continued to erode. Two other homes in the neighborhood were destroyed by slides earlier this month.

Photo: A teenage driver was hospitalized when her compact car hydroplaned across rain-slickened South Riverside Avenue in Rialto and slammed head-on into a tractor trailer in the opposite lane. (Irfan Khan / LAT)

The California Highway Patrol said rain-slick pavement apparently contributed to a traffic accident that sent a sport utility vehicle hurtling into the 3-foot-deep waters of the Santa Ana River early Tuesday.

Officers said Heidi Eubanks, 19, of Yorba Linda lost control of her vehicle on the westbound Riverside Freeway near Weir Canyon Road about 1:15 a.m. The car skidded into the river, but Eubanks and her two passengers were able to wade to safety.

Eubanks was taken to Kaiser Permanente in Anaheim Hills, where she was treated for a cut on the head. Her passengers were not injured, officers said.

Dozens of low-lying streets in the county were temporarily closed by rising floodwaters, including Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. The southbound lanes of Laguna Canyon Road were closed by runoff between the San Diego Freeway and El Toro Road.

Times staff writers Mai Tran and Sara Lin in Orange County and Daryl Strickland in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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