WET & WILD UNEXPECTEDLY BRUTAL STORM SLAMS AREA.Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer After the driest season on record, a record-breaking storm drenched drench tr.v. drenched, drench·ing, drench·es 1. To wet through and through; soak. 2. To administer a large oral dose of liquid medicine to (an animal). 3. Los Angeles on Friday, causing scores of freeway pile-ups, prompting a river rescue and sparking fears of mudslides. But there was also an upside: The storm eased fears of fire danger around the parched parch v. parched, parch·ing, parch·es v.tr. 1. To make extremely dry, especially by exposure to heat: The midsummer sun parched the earth. region. Three motorists died on slick freeways in the area, with the California Highway Patrol reporting a threefold increase in rush-hour crashes. A 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. helicopter crew rescued a man stranded on an island in the rain-swollen Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. near Glendale. The rainfall - expected to hit up to 3 inches in some areas - also prompted the U.S. Forest Service to reopen 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 , which had been closed since September amid the worst wildfire season since 1919. ``It was a ground-soaker,'' said Stuart Seto with the National Weather Service. ``This one came in kind of slow at first, so it got soaked into the ground. ... It did help reduce the possibility of fire danger.'' But the storm is just a drop in the bucket of what's needed to replenish the thirsty region, which had its last drop of rain - literally, it only measured .6 of an inch - 284 days ago. Still, downtown beat the record set more than a century ago, with 1.84 inches of rain for the day, compared with 1.02 inches on the same day in 1882. Chatsworth measured 1.94 inches, breaking the record set in 1984 of .69 of an inch, and Pierce College saw 1.55 inches, besting the 1979 record for the day of .61 of an inch. ``It's highly unusual for us to get a storm this early in the season with rainfalls up to 1 1/2 to 2 inches,'' Seto said. The 2001-02 rainy season that ended June 30 was the driest year in Los Angeles since records started being kept in 1877, with 4.42 inches measured downtown compared with the 15.14-inch norm, officials said. The storm that blew in Thursday night is expected to remain through today, prompting a high-surf advisory throughout the weekend, the National Weather Service said. Flood advisories had been issued through Friday morning along the coasts, and the fire-ravished foothills braced for mudslides while fire stations offered sandbags sandbags small sacks containing sand used to support an anesthetized animal in dorsal recumbency and prevent it from rolling sideways during anesthesia or surgery. to protect properties. The environmental watchdog group Heal the Bay Heal the Bay is a U.S. environmental advocacy non-profit organization based in Santa Monica, California. Heal the Bay is dedicated to protecting California's Santa Monica Bay, a region of the Pacific coast encompassed by Malibu's Point Dume on the north and the Palos Verdes warned beachgoers to stay out of the water because of pollution that will flow into the ocean as part of the ``first flush'' of storm drains that comes with the first major rainfall of the season. On the highways, along with the threefold increase in crashes from 50 a week ago to 151 on Friday, the California Highway Patrol logged nine SigAlerts - the dreaded condition that means a lane will be blocked for more than 30 minutes, causing inconvenience and delay. The CHP CHP Chapter CHP Combined Heat and Power CHP California Highway Patrol CHP Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Turkish: Republican People's Party) CHP Chemical Hygiene Plan (OSHA) CHP Community Health Plan says slowing down - along with allowing a greater distance between cars, and checking brakes and headlights for proper function - would go a long way in preventing rainy-day crashes. ``Definitely speed plays a big factor in many of these (crashes),'' said CHP spokesman Luis Mendoza. ``If you just follow those rules, traffic collisions would be down significantly.'' Compounding the problem, the CHP says, are the secondary pile-ups that result as drivers slam on the brakes on slippery freeways. ``What usually happens is that during rainy conditions, you have two to three'' collisions behind each initial crash, Mendoza explained. The county's busy freeway lanes each handle about 2,000 vehicles an hour during peak times, and every time a lane gets shut down, the CHP estimates about a 40-minute delay for the rest of the motorists. The highways also suffer because the first storm loosens up the highway grime - the oil and diesel fuel that slickens slick·en tr. & intr.v. slick·ened, slick·en·ing, slick·ens To make or become slick. slick  en·er n. roadways and adds to the slip-and-slide effect, officials said. The CHP also says drivers should do their part by checking brakes and headlights for proper functioning, maintain proper tire pressure, allow for more time to get places and be courteous on the road. The CHP added that even with the increase in crashes Friday during the 5-9 a.m. rush hour, other rainy days have generated as many as 400 incidents. Mendoza said Fridays tend to have fewer morning commuters than other days of the week, and he speculated that a massive pile-up pile·up or pile-up n. 1. Informal A serious collision usually involving several motor vehicles. 2. An accumulation: "the pile-up of unsold autos" on the Long Beach Freeway during heavy fog last weekend might have served to remind drivers to take it easy. ``It sounds like people were listening to the warnings,'' he said. ``They actually slowed down.'' Some commuters know the drill. Bill Stegemeyer left home at 5:30 a.m., a half-hour earlier than usual, to beat the rainy-day crush on his commute to Woodland Hills. ``You figure if people would just drive a little more slowly, you'd probably avoid a lot of it,'' he said. ``When it rains, they don't get away with what they do on another day - a dry road is more forgiving.'' Nicole Shaghoian braces for bad-weather-day commutes from her home on the Westside to downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or after having been slammed in a five-car pile-up in the rain a decade ago. ``When it rains like this, I get freaked,'' said Shaghoian, who on Friday morning had to commute from Marina del Rey into Woodland Hills. ``The stupid thing I see is people still drive really fast,'' said Shaghoian. ``I don't even know if they think.'' For the closed national forest, the rain came just in time to reopen the area for the last weekend of deer hunting season. ``We are madly scrambling to remove signs and unlock gates,'' said Cid Morgan, district ranger. ``It may take a day or two to get caught up.'' Though the storm offered relief, the forest is still extremely dry, officials said. Open fires are not allowed anywhere in the forest and jellied jel·lied adj. 1. Chilled or otherwise congealed into jelly. 2. Coated with jelly. 3. Prepared or cooked in or with jelly. or liquid fuel stoves can be used only in drive-in, developed picnic areas and camp sites, officials said. No charcoal or barbecues are permitted. ``It's still pretty dry out there,'' Morgan said. ``We are hoping to get rain at a nice slow, steady pace so the vegetation will soak it up Soak It Up is the third EP (though second canonically) released by novelty rock group Barnes & Barnes. It was released in August 1983 by Boulevard Records, and re-released in 2005 on Oglio Records. .'' For information, call the U.S. Forest Service at (626) 296-9710. Staff writers Nicholas Grudin and Kathleen Sweeney contributed to this report. SAFETY TIPS Here are the main reasons for freeway crashes in the rain, according to the California Highway Patrol: 1. Unsafe speed 2. Following too closely 3. Lack of visibility 4. Slippery roadways CAPTION(S): 4 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) Tow truck drivers work to upright a truck that overturned on the rain-slick northbound lanes of the Antelope Valley Freeway The Antelope Valley Freeway is a freeway in Los Angeles and Kern counties in southern California. It is signed as California State Highway 14 along its length. It connects Greater Los Angeles to the rapidly developing Antelope Valley. just south of 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 on Friday morning. The stormy commute was a trial for many drivers. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer (2 -- color) One Glendale Community College Glendale Community College can refer to one of two colleges in the United States.
n. pl. whim·sies also whim·seys 1. An odd or fanciful idea; a whim. 2. A quaint or fanciful quality: stories full of whimsy. in his choice of umbrella as he dashes to classes on the pedestrian bridge that crosses Canada Boulevard. John McCoy/Staff Photographer (3) A Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter crew works to pull a homeless man, who had been living on a brush-covered sandbar sandbar or offshore bar Submerged or partly exposed ridge of sand or coarse sediment that is built by waves offshore from a beach. The swirling turbulence of waves breaking off a beach excavates a trough in the sandy bottom. in the L.A. River between Colorado and Los Feliz boulevards, to safety on Friday. The man was reportedly unhurt. Natalie Wooldridge/Special to the Daily News (4) A bicyclist avoids puddles on Lanark Street in Reseda on Friday. Matthew Simmons/Special to the Daily News Box: SAFETY TIPS (see text) |
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