FROM CHAOS TO BLUE SKIES; REGION DIGS OUT AFTER STORM SIEGE.Byline: Eric Leach Daily News Staff Writer Forecasters predicted another beautiful day for Tuesday with only a chance of showers - a welcome relief for Southern Californians who have had to slog through more rain already than they normally see in an entire year. With the break in the rain clouds, cleanup crews scrambled to clear storm drains, repair damage and remove hundreds of fallen trees across 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. and Ventura counties. President Clinton declared Ventura County one of 27 federal disaster areas in the state, as residents estimated about $36 million in damage from rainstorms that swamped thousands of acres of row crops. In 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. , police stood 24-hour guard at the downed Lang Oak to stop people from taking acorns and other parts of the beloved 1,000-year-old tree that has served as a landmark on Louise Avenue in Encino. Officers said their concern is that people could hurt themselves. Greenskeepers raced to repair all 18 holes of Woodley Golf Course by today and all 18 holes of Balboa Golf Course by Wednesday. Nine holes at Encino Golf Course, including three par-five holes also should be opened by Wednesday if weather allows, but the remaining holes at Encino won't be open for about four months. That is, unless another round of pounding storms hit. More rain en route El Nino experts continued to predict that the global weather phenomenon could sock the Southland with a series of storms through the end of the season. ``The longer-range prediction is that we will continue with more than the usual amount of rain for the rest of the winter and into the coming spring,'' said Tom Murphree, a meteorology meteorology, branch of science that deals with the atmosphere of a planet, particularly that of the earth, the most important application of which is the analysis and prediction of weather. professor at the Naval Postgraduate School The Naval Postgraduate School is a graduate school operated by the United States Navy. Located in Monterey, California, it grants primarily master's degrees plus some doctoral degrees to its students, who are mostly active duty officers from U.S. and foreign military services. in Monterey. ``The jet stream has flowed pretty straight across Northern Africa, Southern Asia and the Pacific Ocean, right on into North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , bringing in with it a number of storms back to back with little interval between the storms,'' he said. ``We think that this pattern is in part due to El Nino.'' The next rain could arrive tonight. Thursday was expected to be partly cloudy Partly Cloudy is an industrial band based in Hollywood, California. Band members
Although other areas have been hit harder, the region's official measuring point at the Los Angeles Civic Center has had 14.99 inches of rain since July 1, compared to 8.83 inches, which is normal for this date, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the National Weather Service. Normal rainfall for the entire year, measured from July 1 to June 30, is 14.77 in Los Angeles. No records have been set, however. ``This amount of rainfall is very unusual,'' said Bruce Rockwell, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Oxnard. ``It's been a string of back-to-back storms with no relief. But now it looks like a little bit of break. I think everybody is going to appreciate that.'' Under mostly blue skies, crews in Encino set to work on the mammoth task of removing a giant oak tree that toppled in the storm Saturday night. Police had to station officers round the clock at the site for crowd control because some oak-tree lovers got belligerent when street tree workers warned them to stay away from the large limbs being removed by a crane. ``I can't think in my 21 years of another incident where we tied up police officers to watch an oak tree and protect street tree workers,'' said Sgt. Dan Mastro of the Los Angeles Police Department's West Valley Division. ``People were out of control. They were jeopardizing their own safety. Some people literally cussed out one of our officers - they called him every name in the book. It's a sad commentary.'' Some people wanted the remains of the historic oak preserved and resurrected at the corner of Ventura Boulevard Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. and Louise Avenue as a monument. City officials said they probably will decide by Wednesday what to do with the remains of the tree. In addition to the Lang Oak, city workers over the weekend were called out on 464 tree-related emergencies, said Robert Kennedy, chief forester for the city of Los Angeles
pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. . Sepulveda Basin slammed Perhaps no place suffered more damage than the Sepulveda Basin. ``The dam was was shut on Friday and it flooded. The back six holes of Encino Golf Course were covered by silt and debris,'' said James Ward Please choose between:
Ward said to his knowledge this was the fifth time in history that Encino Golf Course was so severely damaged. ``The greens will be cleaned off with fire hoses,'' he said. In spite of the damage to the golf course, officials said the basin was holding up well. ``It's working perfectly for what it was built for,'' said Mona Lee Goss, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the flood-control basin. The president's declaration of Ventura County as one of 27 federal disaster areas in the state makes residents and local cities eligible for federal emergency funds to cover property losses and cleanup costs. The $36 million estimate of damage quadruples what had been reported last week after a weekend of relentless rainstorms dumped an additional five inches of rain over the waterlogged wa·ter·logged adj. 1. Nautical Heavy and sluggish in the water because of flooding, as in the hold: a waterlogged ship. 2. region. ``At this point, we're still gathering information about damage in the county, and we still have more of the rainy season left to go,'' said Dale Carnathan, program administrator for the Sheriff's Office of Emergency Services emergency services Emergency care '…services …necessary to prevent death or serious impairment of health and, because of the danger to life or health, require the use of the most accessible hospital available and equipped to furnish those services' . CAPTION(S): 3 Photos, map PHOTO (1 -- color) Peter Zikry, 12, left, and his brother, Abraham, 9, play on a wet court in Reseda. Myung Chun/Daily News (2 -- color) Damaged houses are pounded by surf at Broad Beach in Malibu on Monday morning. Tina Gerson/Daily News (3 -- color) Swift-water rescuer Don Reyes helps Avelino Flores Flores, town, Guatemala Flores (flōrəs), town (1990 est. pop. 2,200), capital of Petén department, N Guatemala. Flores was built on an island in the southern part of Lake Petén Itzá and on the site of the across the L.A. River after he got stuck while scavenging scavenging of anesthetic. See anesthetic scavenging. for bottles. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News Map: February rainfall |
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