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FLOOD OF TROUBLE POUNDING RAIN HITS HILLSIDES, MOTORISTS.


Byline: Phillip W. Browne, Andrea Cavanaugh and John Miller Staff Writers

Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850.  will get a much-needed break early today from the unforgiving rain that has pounded Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region,  since Thursday, but a new front will move in tonight, bringing with it an additional 2 inches to 4 inches of rain.

It will be the last storm at least for a while and forecasters say Southern Californians will see sunshine Tuesday, ending a wave of storms. The latest storm wave on Sunday alone dumped 4 1/2 inches of rain downtown, 6 inches in Burbank and Chatsworth, 3.29 inches in Woodland Hills and nearly 8 inches in Beverly Hills Beverly Hills, city (1990 pop. 31,971), Los Angeles co., S Calif., completely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles; inc. 1914. The largely residential city is home to many motion-picture and television personalities. .

``We'll begin to see some normalcy nor·mal·cy  
n.
Normality.

Noun 1. normalcy - being within certain limits that define the range of normal functioning
normality
 come back on Tuesday, but it's still winter,'' said National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Hoffer. ``We should see clear to partly cloudy skies from Tuesday all the way out to Saturday.''

While there might be blue skies on the horizon, the relentless storm system that has hovered over Southern California since Thursday caused massive flooding, mudslides, power outages, several evacuations, school closures and disrupted commuter rail service.

The heavy rainfall is being attributed to a sluggish, low-pressure system that collided with a stream of tropical moisture from the southern Pacific known as a ``Pineapple Express.''

On the third consecutive day of heavy downpours Sunday, the skies dumped up to 2 inches of rain an hour in some areas - turning some streets in hillside communities into raging rivers and stranding dozens of motorists who had to be rescued by overtaxed emergency workers.

At Sun Valley's infamous intersection - San Fernando Road San Fernando Road is a major street in the city and county of Los Angeles. It starts off in Castaic as The Old Road, passing through Santa Clarita and the Newhall Pass, where upon its intersection with Sierra Highway near the junction of the Golden State (I-5) and the  and Tuxford Street - a swift-water rescue team plucked 20-year-old Amber Pitts from her car after she became stuck in as much as 4 feet of water at about 6 p.m.

``It was the fourth rescue we have made at that intersection (Sunday). Luckily, she was OK,'' said Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), also known as the Los Angeles City Fire Department to distinguish it from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles.  spokesman Brian Humphrey. ``That intersection is always flooded when it rains, and some people decide to try to make it through.''

In the Ventura County community of Bardsdale, just south of Fillmore, resident Doug Bofolo and his family had to evacuate their house just east of Highway 23 when a massive water flow overtook his property.

``The water was chest-deep. Everything was floating,'' Bofolo said. ``We've got a 5-foot block wall and we can't even see the top of it. This is even worse than the flooding we got in 1969.''

Outlying areas hit

In Santa Clarita, residents of the Polynesian Mobile Home Park at San Fernando Road and Sierra Highway were evacuated when saturated hillsides and roadbeds gave way to the nonstop flooding.

Thirty engine companies, the Urban Search and Rescue The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.
 teams and county lifeguards were deployed with more than 200 firefighters responding.

``The whole (Santa Clarita) valley (was) on alert,'' Los Angeles County Fire Department Not to be confused with Los Angeles Fire Department.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), serves unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 58 cities and towns that choose to have the county provide fire and EMS services, including the City of La
 Capt. Dave Peterson said during Sunday's deluge.

The Fire Department reported flooding as high as second-story windows at cabins along Bouquet Canyon in the Angeles National Forest The Angeles National Forest (ANF) was established by executive order on December 20, 1892 as the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve. It covers over 2,600 km² (650,000 acres) and is located in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County, just north of the metropolitan area of Los . By midafternoon, department resources were stretched thin and there was not much more that could be done to hold back mudslides.

Flooding was reported at Bouquet Canyon Road and Vasquez Canyon Road, causing a road closure.

In Saugus, firefighters led a dozen people to high ground after they were stranded on San Francisquito Canyon Road by flooding and mudslides from the rain-swelled San Francisquito Creek The San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into San Francisco Bay in California, United States of America. Its headwaters are in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Menlo Park, around 667m (2000 feet) above the Bay. .

Four adults and eight children were rescued by helicopter and taken to safety at a church at the mouth of San Francisquito Canyon.

Gary Brynjegard and sons Peter, 16, and Garrison, 13, of Castaic had headed into the canyon earlier to survey damage. Brynjegard works for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States, serving 3.9 million residents in 2006. It was founded in 1902 to deliver water and electricity supplies to residents and businesses in Los Angeles. , which operates two plants along winding, two-lane San Francisquito Canyon Road just north of Santa Clarita.

``We drove up to look around, then saw a mudslide and I said, We better get out of here,'' Brynjegard said. ``We ran like crazy; the mountains were sliding down around us.''

In Fillmore, 145 people had to be evacuated from the El Dorado Mobile Home Park, where floodwaters began breaching their homes.

A mudslide closed Highway 126 between Fillmore and Piru, and Highway 23 between Fillmore and Moorpark was closed by a massive water flow that was a quarter-mile wide.

Emergency notifications in Ventura County indicated that all schools in the Fillmore Unified School District A unified school district is a school district which includes both primary school (kindergarten through middle school or junior high) and high school (grades 9-12). In Illinois, these districts are called unit school districts.  would be closed today, and Metrolink said its Ventura County line will be closed today because of flooding and mudslides.

Metrolink said its trains will not be operating from stations at Camarillo, Oxnard or Montalvo. Passengers are being asked to go to the Oxnard station, where buses will be provided to take them to Moorpark station.

In Ventura, fire crews rescued six residents of the evacuated Emma Wood State Beach Emma Wood State Beach is a protected beach located in the state of California. It is located north of the main city of Ventura. Although known by its camping it is probably most famous for its amazing surf. Emma Wood has a great shore break which has resulted in many surf contests.  RV park who were trapped on a rock on the Santa Clara River Santa Clara River may refer to:
  • Santa Clara River (California), a river in Southern California, United States.
  • Santa Clara River (Utah), a river in Utah, United States
  • Carmen River, a river in Mexico that is sometimes called the Santa Clara River
 bottom near the West Main Street Bridge on Sunday morning.

Elsewhere in Ventura County, Sheriff's Department officials reported flooding in the Arroyo Vista Mobile Home Park in Moorpark, where residents were evacuated.

Late Saturday, a man drowned after being washed away by a swollen river north of Ojai in Ventura County, officials said.

Los Angeles slammed

Sunday was a long day for L.A. city and county firefighters, who responded to numerous mudslides, collapses and rescues.

A mudslide in Elysian Park buried a makeshift homeless encampment, killing one man and injuring another while they slept in a tent. One person died and four people were hurt in a single-car crash on Pacific Coast Highway Pacific Coast Highway may refer to:
  • Pacific Coast Highway (United States), a segment of State Route 1 in California
  • Pacific Coast Highway (New Zealand), a 420 kilometre highway http://www.newzealand.
 near Malibu.

A two-story home collapsed in the Studio City area above the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley

Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills.
, and a 33-year-old man and his two children were pulled from the rubble with minor injuries. Fire officials said the house rolled down the hill and collapsed into a pile of debris in a matter of seconds.

The rain caused a hillside to give way in the 6200 block of Gyral gy·ral  
adj.
1. Moving in a circle or spiral; gyratory.

2. Of or relating to a gyrus.



gyral·ly adv.
 Drive in Sunland, damaging a home and prompting authorities to evacuate five people from three residences, Humphrey said.

And in Los Feliz, a man was rescued from a three-story home built into a hillside in the 1900 block of Lucille Drive when a mudslide overran o·ver·ran  
v.
Past tense of overrun.
 the patio and flowed into the house.

The roads in Los Angeles County were equally frustrating. Dozens of roads and highways List of articles related to roads and highways around the world. International/World
  • Asian Highway Network
  • Alaska Highway
  • European route
  • Pan-American Highway
  • Trans-African Highway network
  • Interoceanic Highway
Australia
 were closed throughout the day. Authorities reported scores of traffic crashes and ordered scattered road closings, including the southbound side of Interstate 5 at the Pasadena Freeway because of a mudslide.

In Malibu, a rain-related, single-vehicle crash in the 19700 block of Pacific Coast Highway left a man dead and four other people injured just before 8 a.m. The vehicle ended up in the ocean, said sheriff's Lt. Randall Dickey of the Malibu-Lost Hills station. The conditions of the four other people were not immediately known.

The storm drew a number of curious Southlanders out to hard-hit canyon areas, further complicating the work of firefighters and other rescue workers. Humphrey urged people to stay off the roads if they can over the next day or two of wet weather.

``Many people have been found sightseeing,'' which Humphrey said was ``hampering the efforts of emergency officials.''

As many as 12,000 DWP DWP Department of Work and Pensions (UK)
DWP Drinking Water Program
DWP Dynamic Weapon Pricing (gamin, Counter-Strike: Source)
DWP Department of Water & Power
DWP Drinking Water Protection
 customers lost power Sunday morning. Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman David Eisenhauer said 11,000 customers remained without power, scattered throughout the company's service area. Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. , which has 4.6 million customers in a 50,000-square-mile service area in five counties, reported only minor power outages.

Several Los Angeles-area radio stations were knocked off the air for hours Sunday after trouble with transmitters on Mount Wilson, which was assumed to be related to the stormy weather.

Today, Topanga Elementary School at 141 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Topanga will be closed because of storm-related road damage, said Stephanie Brady of the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. .

It was unknown when the school will reopen, she said. Parents seeking more information should contact the school or its Web site.

Wide-reaching effects

The storm wreaked havoc in Northern California and Nevada as well, piling snow deeper across the Sierra Nevada, stranding an Amtrak Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., authorized to operate virtually all intercity passenger railroad routes in the United States. Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 in response to more than two decades of continuous operating deficits by privately run  train, knocking out service at the Reno airport and shutting down major highways across the mountains.

Forecasters called the series of storms the snowiest in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area since 1916.

``I've lived here for almost 40 years and I've never seen anything like it,'' Peter Walenta, 69, of Stateline said Sunday.

An avalanche knocked a 13-year-old boy from a ski lift at the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas, said Clark County fire spokesman Bob Leinbach.

Forecasters extended a winter storm warning See Severe weather terminology for a comprehensive article on this term and related weather terms.


A Winter Storm Warning is an announcement made by the National Weather Service of the United States which means a winter storm is occurring or is about to occur in
 into Tuesday across the Sierra and parts of northern Nevada, where as much as 2 more feet of snow was expected. The latest storm had left up to 6 1/2 feet of snow in the Sierra and 2 1/2 feet in the Reno area.

Carol Rock, Patricia Farrell Aidem and wire services contributed to this report.

Phillip W. Browne, (818) 713-3707

phillip.browne(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

8 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Amber Pitts, above, seeks sanctuary on the roof of her car after trying to cross a flooded intersection at Tuxford Street and San Fernando Road on Sunday. Below, Emily Lanza, 15, dries off after being rescued from San Francisquito Canyon.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

David Crane/Staff Photographer

(3) Flooding damaged residences at the Polynesian Mobile Home Park in Newhall on Sunday. Residents were evacuated to a Red Cross shelter at Hart High School Hart High School may refer to:
  • Hart High School — Newhall, California
  • Hart High School — Hart, Michigan
  • Hart County High School — Munfordville, Kentucky
  • Hart County High School — Hartwell, Georgia
.

(4 -- 7) Residents along San Francisquito Canyon Road, top, watch as the river swells up and takes an SUV along with it. L.A. County swift-water rescue teams, above left, use a bulldozer to get through flooded areas at the Polynesian Mobile Home Park in Newhall and rescue residents such as this baby. Above, an uninjured Kim Perston is helped out of her car after it went off the I-5 in Valencia. At left, Lupe Elias, flanked by sons Javier and Eric, fend off water at their Val Verde home.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

(8 -- color) A father and two children pulled from the rubble of their Laurel Canyon home.
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No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Jan 10, 2005
Words:1728
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