New Storm Has Southland Past Saturation Point

A new storm slammed into the Southland with a vengeance on Saturday, causing one fatality in Orange County, dangerously swelling rivers and reservoirs, flooding roadways and triggering mudslides, including three in Tijuana that killed eight people.

Heavy rains swept away an adobe wall at the historic mission at San Juan Capistrano, destroyed a home in Modjeska Canyon, left 18 horses stuck in knee-high mud in Anaheim and marooned more than 30 children at a clubhouse in Laguna Beach when a downed power line blocked a road leading to it.

More rain is expected today and the National Weather Service reissued a flash flood watch from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Officials declared a state of emergency in Orange, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties.

“The potential for flooding is at its greatest level in at least 10 years, possibly 15,” said Steve Burback, meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., a private weather forecasting service that provides information to The Times. But forecasters said the rains should stop and skies should clear by Monday night.

The California Highway Patrol said Arvind Kumar, 49, of Laguna Beach died after his car went out of control on a flooded stretch of Coast Highway south of Sand Canyon Avenue and struck another heading in the opposite direction about 1:20 p.m.

The driver of the other car, Fred C. Ludwig, was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where he was listed in serious condition, said CHP Officer Spiros Doumas.

The heavy rains caused Irvine Lake to fill to capacity for the first time in 20 years, officials said. Officials will open up Villa Park Dam, downstream of Irvine Lake, to regulate the flow into Santiago Creek. Emergency workers planned to begin releasing water into the creek late Saturday night. They spent the day clearing brush and debris from the creek bed that runs through the cities of Villa Park, Orange and Santa Ana.

The Santa Ana River, which spends most of the year as an ignominiously dry river bed, on Saturday looked like a raging mountain stream. The Santa Ana Fire Department on Saturday practiced rescue techniques at the river, and officials said they were thankful that so far no actual rescue had been needed.

“This river is now very dangerous,” said Santa Ana Fire Battalion Chief John Chambers. “I estimate that it’s flowing about 7 m.p.h. If a child were to fall into that river, the current would sweep the child away very quickly.”

Chambers said the rising Santa Ana River also poses hidden hazards. “This river isn’t like others because it has a lot of man-made things that make it very dangerous,” Chambers said.

The rain and flooding caused closures of parts of Carbon Canyon Road, and Pacific Coast Highway between Golden West and Warner streets in Huntington Beach.

Flooding and mudslides prompted the CHP to close several stretches of highway and interchanges, including: the Santa Ana Freeway between 17th Street in Santa Ana to the Costa Mesa Freeway and most northbound lanes of the Santa Ana Freeway at Red Hill Avenue in Tustin; northbound lanes of the Orange Freeway at Lambert Road in Brea; eastbound lanes of Ortega Highway at La Pata Avenue, just outside San Juan Capistrano and Silverado Canyon Road in both directions.

In Anaheim, mudslides closed Santa Ana Canyon Road between Weir Canyon and Gypsum Canyon roads, police said. In Irvine, flooding prompted police to close Jamboree Road between Walnut and Edinger avenues.

Flooding also closed El Toro Road near Laguna Beach between The Club Drive and Laguna Canyon Road.

Highway officials said there were scores of minor traffic accidents caused by the rain-slicked roads. Another traffic hazard, officials said, was that low-lying clouds and fog reduced visibility in several parts of Orange County.

“We’re really busy today--lots of stalled vehicles,” said Joyce Paiva, service coordinator for the Orange County branch of the Automobile Assn. of America. “Saturday mornings are usually slow, but I’d say we’re getting twice as many calls,” said Paiva, who said extra staff was needed Saturday to handle calls from stranded motorists.

Water submerged stretches of railroad track throughout the Southland, prompting Amtrak officials to halt service between the heavily traveled route between Los Angeles and San Diego on Saturday afternoon, a spokesman said. It was not clear Saturday night when service would resume and several hundred passengers were stranded at stations.

About 9:30 a.m. Saturday, some San Juan Capistrano residents heard a cracking noise before discovering that seepage and heavy rains swept away an adobe and plaster portion of a containment wall outside the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano.

“The damage is to a piece of the containment wall about 10 to 15 feet long,” said Msgr. Paul Martin. “Luckily, there were no injuries or serious damage.”

The rain damage was limited to the perimeter wall, which is made of adobe, and did not damage any of the historic buildings inside the wall, said Brian McInerney, director of the visitor center.

Officials said a wall of mud destroyed one home in Modjeska Canyon and damaged another. No injuries were reported.

Rainwaters also caused a flood control channel near the San Clemente coast to overflow Saturday, stranding a group of office workers and flooding some nearby businesses.

Water described as up to six feet deep rushed through the intersection of Avenida Pico and North El Camino Real shortly before 5 p.m. as the flood control channel overflowed, said Jack Stubbs, a San Clemente Fire Department spokesman. “That flood channel was awash like something I’ve never seen,” Stubbs said.

Four office workers at a real estate company scrambled to the roof of their single-story building to escape rushing waters before firefighters helped them down with ladders, Stubbs said.

Police and Fire Department officials had to evacuate a few people from a trailer park near the flooded intersection, Stubbs said.

The National Weather Service posted flood alerts at midday Saturday for Orange County and most other Southland counties, and about 45 members of the California Conservation Corps braved the rains to perform flood control work in the Orange area, officials said.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Friday declared a state of emergency and ordered work crews of the Environmental Management Agency to also begin repair efforts in flooding areas.

Dan Bowman, meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., said Orange County continued to receive unusually heavy amounts of rain in the 24-hour period from 4 p.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday. During that period, El Toro received 2.11 inches of rain, Santa Ana received 1.74 inches of rain and San Juan Capistrano received 1.93 inches of rain, he said.

Children spending Friday afternoon at the Boys and Girls Club in Laguna Beach on Laguna Canyon Road found themselves stranded for several hours after a downed power line and poor driving conditions forced law enforcement officials to close off the road, said Kris Schroeder, program director at the club.

Parents had to walk through the rain to the club to pick up their children, said Schroeder, who said driving on the road appeared dangerous.

The rainy weather has chewed into deteriorating streets in many cities, causing a growing rash of potholes.

Officials on Saturday said that because the rain was continuing, work in filling most of the potholes would be delayed until the weather clears. A Huntington Beach public works official explained that pothole repairs do not seal properly in the rain. He said that only emergency work would be tackled during the continuing rain.

One pothole in the 700 block of West Coast Highway in Newport Beach was declared to be an emergency, and crews were out in the rain Saturday morning filling that road hazard.

The latest misery came as a second storm in less than 24 hours hit the area, the result of a forceful low pressure system that started blowing in from Alaska late Saturday. These latest blows followed a series of downpours that have hit the area over the last two weeks.

In Tijuana, the eight people who died in shantytowns brought to 25 the number killed there since a series of storms took aim at the crowded border city Jan. 6.

Soldiers patrolled some neighborhoods, distributing emergency supplies. Fear seized many other settlements bracing for more rain.

Until this weekend, most of Tijuana’s dead had been killed by floods. Starting late Friday night, water-logged earth gave way to mudslides that began taking a new toll in hillside squatter settlements ringing the city. At least three separate killer mudslides were reported Saturday.

Rosaura Dominguez, 26, and her children, Perla Judit, 3, and Epifanio, 1, were killed before dawn when a mudslide engulfed the bed they were sleeping in at the Colonio El Grupo Mexico in the La Mesa area east of downtown. Their husband and father, Francisco Dominguez, who slept in an adjoining room in their wooden shack, escaped.

The side of the house facing a hill was reinforced with tires, scrapwood and rocks. But a wall of mud about 12 feet across crushed the makeshift fortification and slid over the bed where the three lay sleeping. Twenty neighbors worked in vain with the help of city rescue teams to save the three. After the incident, more than 100 residents fled the area until rain subsides.

Two other children died in a southern colonia called Rubi. Elizabeth Tovar, 6, and her brother, Jesus, 20 months, died about 11 p.m. Friday night. Further details were unavailable Saturday.

A mother and her two children died in yet another mudslide early Saturday morning, authorities said. The three lived in a hillside squatter settlement called Chula Vista in the south central portion of the city. The three were identified as Sandra Becerra, 33, Tina Barrera, 4, and Juan Carlos Rodriquez, 11.

Officials warned that Barrett Dam and San Vicente Dam, both in the south part of the city, may begin spilling over by Monday if the rains persist.

Meanwhile, some 300 U.S. visitors remained stranded 180 miles south of Tijuana in the community of San Quintin, where a rain-swollen arroyo knocked out sections of a highway bridge north of town, blocking vehicular access along Baja California’s main north-south artery.

In Montebello, residents of a apartment house inundated on Friday used the lull before the latest storm to sift through water-soaked belongings.

“Everything is pretty much ruined,” said Jaime Mirin, clutching pictures of his two small children in the ruins of his apartment in the 600 block of Via Altamira.

The building’s 134 residents were allowed back into their homes briefly Saturday to salvage what they could. Most expected to spend Saturday night with relatives or in hotel rooms provided by the Red Cross.

In Ventura County, a mudslide Friday night prompted Caltrans to close an 11-mile stretch of California 150 between Ojai and the Santa Barbara County line. The mountainous highway, which winds around the northern side of the Lake Casitas reservoir, will be closed for a week, a Caltrans spokeswoman said Saturday.

Although Santa Monica Bay beaches remained open Saturday, health officials recommended that people continue to stay out of the water between Torrance and Pacific Palisades after water samples revealed high bacteria levels.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Chris Kraul, Eric Young, Laurie Becklund, Steve Padilla, Patrick McDonnell and Gary Gorman.