Cold, 'vigorous' storm sweeps through Southland

AP Photo

Worker Jose Matios works to clean up mud and debris from Pat Anderson's home in La Canada Flintridge, Calif. on Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010. Some homeowners in mud-ravaged foothill towns north of Los Angeles packed their cars and fled Tuesday as evacuation orders took hold and a new winter storm approached.

A cold and ``vigorous'' storm moved into the Southland today, renewing the possibility of mudslides in foothill communities.

At 2 p.m., with radar showing thunderstorms bearing down burn areas, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning that is expected to stay in effect until 5 p.m. at least.

At San Gabriel Dam, up to a half inch or rain fell in 15 minutes, according to the NWS.

Geologists have warned that rain falling at a rate of an inch per hour is about all the fire-denuded hillside can take before slides start happening.

In La Canada Flintridge's Paradise Valley neighborhood, residents cleared cars and trash cans from streets to prevent them from being swept away as they were Saturday morning, when the boulder-clogged Mullally catch basin atop Ocean View Boulevard sent mud, rocks, logs and other fire debris down the down the canyon road.

County officials threatened to tow any cars left on the street.

``The tow trucks and flat beds are staging,'' sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Most of the 28 catch basins protecting residential areas adjacent Angeles National Forest land burned in the August-September Station Fire were filled, or nearly so, during last week's storm, and county public works crews were scrambling to clear them before today's rain.

Though most of the basins were full, no slides were reported as of about 3:30 p.m., according to public works spokesman Bob Spencer. About 1,000 public works employees, including bulldozer and backhoe operators, were standing by, he said.

As of 10 a.m., 527 homes were under evacuation orders, and about 62 percent or residents cooperated, according to sheriff's deputies. The evacuations include 247 homes in La Canada Flintridge, 224 in La Crescenta and 56 in Acton, Soledad Canyon and Aliso Canyon.

At least nine homes were seriously damaged or destroyed along the upper reaches of Ocean View Boulevard, staring about 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Firefighters were unable to get to homeowners in trouble, and neighbors rescued an ill, 86- year-old woman whose hospital bed was floating in floodwaters when they reached her.

Snow levels are expected to drop as low as about 2,500 feet overnight, and both main freeway passes in and out of the Los Angeles Basin could be affected.

At ski resorts, up to 16 inches of snow is expected.