6 Missing in Ocean Accident; Winds Batter Southland

Six crewmen were missing Saturday and feared drowned in the icy waters off Northern California after their tugboat apparently sank in rough seas, while Southern California was pummeled by rain, hail, snow and gale-force winds.

Coast Guard spokesman Brad Terrill said the Willamette Pilot III radioed a Mayday call at 12:30 a.m. and reported that the tug was listing heavily in the stern and taking in water 50 miles west of Point Arena. The six crew members reported they were donning survival suits and preparing to board a life raft when radio contact was broken, he said.

One body was spotted by search crews in the area where the boat went down, but high seas prevented it from being recovered, according to the Coast Guard.

Water temperature was reported to be 50 degrees in 30-foot seas in the area where the tug is thought to have gone down. The swells were being rocked by 40-knot winds, the Coast Guard said.

“It’s imperative that we find them soon because of the cold water,” Terrill said of the crewmen.

The Willamette Pilot III had been sent out to relieve the Pacific Challenge, another tug that was towing a barge loaded with newsprint from the Pacific Northwest. Soon after taking the tow, the Willamette Pilot III began to sink, Terrill said. Another tug was sent out to retrieve the barge while the Pacific Challenge helped in the search for survivors.

Two fixed-wing aircraft from the Air Force and Coast Guard and the cutter Confidence were also helping in the search.

In Southern California, about 8,000 Los Angeles residents were without power at one time or another Saturday, a Department of Water and Power spokesman said. Most of the power outages were caused by fallen tree limbs and power lines blown together by high winds.

“As soon as we restore power to some customers we get reports of fallen lines somewhere else,” said DWP spokesman Elizabeth Wimmer. “But right now (Saturday afternoon) there really aren’t any serious problems.”

The largest area effected was a 1,500-home section of Van Nuys and North Hollywood, Wimmer said. Smaller outages were spread around Los Angeles County.

Alaskan Gulf Storm System

A storm system from the Gulf of Alaska triggered the heavy weather as it moved through Southern California and into Nevada, according to the National Weather Service.

A radio station in the desert town of Coachella south of Palm Springs lost its 252-foot transmitting tower to a 50-m.p.h. gust of wind. Spanish-language station KVIM-AM was knocked off the air for an hour. It had only one-fifth its normal 5,000-watt power when it resumed operation using a sister station’s antenna, according to a station spokesman.

And the Huntington Beach Public Library closed early Saturday after lightning struck a transformer and knocked out power at about noon. Library director Walter Johnson said the repairs might take until Tuesday.

Traffic on several foothill highways was slowed as snow and slush dropped to the 3,500-foot level. Mt. Baldy Road was closed at Shinn Road after 75 cars were stuck in the snow. “Everybody is stuck in the snow so much they can’t move,” said Highway Patrol officer Phil Lammi.

Tow trucks and snow plows were sent to pull the cars out and no injuries were reported, Lammi said.

A blizzard on Interstate 5, the state’s major north-south highway, slowed traffic to a crawl. And cars were also slowed by snow on the Antelope Valley Freeway north of Golden Valley and on 5 near its junction with Interstate 15.

Meanwhile, in Malibu, the CHP and Caltrans workers were keeping watch on a fragile hillside near Big Rock Canyon that geologists feared might come tumbling on top of several beach homes. A few rocks were uprooted by the winds that gusted at up to 55 m.p.h.

A small-craft advisory was posted along the coast because of 12-ffot swells and high winds. The sloop Brisa lost a mast and the motor yacht The Stroker had engine problems on separate trips to Santa Catalina Island, but both were towed safely back to ports on the mainland.

The high at the Los Angeles Civic Center reached 58 degrees with humidity at 42%. Temperatures are expected to reach 62 degrees under clear skies today, with a nighttime low of between 42 and 48 degrees tonight.