Storms Drench State, Renew Slide Threat

Two unexpectedly heavy storm fronts rolled across the state Friday, whipping soggy Southern California with gusty winds, downing power lines, triggering freeway pileups and stirring renewed fears for residents of fire-blackened hillsides and canyons.

Three people had to leap into the stormy Pacific from a 120-foot yacht as it was smashed against rocks and sank just off Dana Point in Orange County. And in San Bernardino County, three members of a Texas family were found dead in the wreckage of a light plane that crashed in heavy fog.

In the San Diego area, rain-slicked roads were a factor in at least one major accident as the county appeared headed for its second-wettest November ever. Three people were seriously injured in a head-on crash early Friday morning on East Valley Parkway near Lake Wohlford Road in Escondido. In the evening, a Poway rescue unit extricated one person trapped in a car after a three-car pile-up on Camino del Norte at Interstate 15.

Avalanche in Sierra

In Northern California, where the storms clogged mountain roads with snow and pounded lower levels with intense rain, a Friday afternoon avalanche roared down on a ski run at the Sugar Bowl resort in the Sierra, burying at least two skiers and killing one of them.

Richard Williams, 19, of San Anselmo escaped unhurt. More than 50 people immediately began probing the snow with poles for the other skier, who was not identified, and an hour and half later pulled him from the slide and rushed him to Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee, where he died a short time later.

Rains apparently caused the ground to shift beneath a retaining wall at a Pasadena town house complex, as cracks suddenly appeared in the wall, porches pulled away from the eight-unit structure and door frames separated from doors.

Residents were ordered out by the Pasadena Fire Department.

“We’re expecting the worst,” Battalion Chief Pete Butler said, “so we’ve planned for the worst on the off chance the building will collapse.”

The Red Cross was arranging to put the displaced residents up in a Pasadena hotel for the night.

Although National Weather Service forecasters had looked for no more than possible drizzles on Thanksgiving Day, the upper-air pattern crossed them up by shifting and opening the gate for storm systems from the Gulf of Alaska.

A third storm was expected to drift through the San Diego area overnight, and forecasters said its rains were almost certain to boost November rainfall totals to the second-highest ever.

As of about 8:30 p.m., the storms had dumped 0.51 of an inch of rain at Lindbergh Field, bringing the November total to 4.88 inches, the third-wettest November ever recorded. But forecasters said it was likely that, by midnight, rain for the month would exceed the second-place total of 4.92 inches. The record for the month is more than 6 inches and, except for an unexpected deluge, its place at the top seems secure, said forecaster Ray Robben.

Clearing skies and partly sunny weather were predicted for Saturday and Sunday, however.

As the second front moved down on Southern California Friday afternoon to blast the Los Angeles International Airport area with heavy rain and winds up to 52 m.p.h., the weather service issued high-wind warnings for mountain and desert areas. Snow was expected at the 4,000-foot level in the northern areas and to 6,000 feet in the southern ranges. Winds and blowing snow were expected to cut visibility severely.

Winds gusting to 50 m.p.h. were reported in some northern mountain and desert areas of the Southland.

Brief Sunshine Due

Highs in the low 60s were forecast for the San Diego area Saturday, with temperatures expected to dip into the upper 40s or low 50s Saturday night. Partly sunny skies and warmer temperatures were forecast for Sunday, with highs in the mid-60s and lows in the low to mid-50s.

Forecasters said another storm was possible Monday, though.

The big worry Friday was for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and for the Malibu area, scenes of big brush fires in recent weeks and last summer. Although some minor mud and rock slides were reported in Ventura County early Friday, by afternoon there been no major problems.

The weather service warned, however, that the Wheeler burn area in Ventura County already had absorbed more than an inch of rain by noon Friday and that if it were hit hard enough by the second front coming through Friday evening, “sliding and mud flows could become serious.”

At the Malibu sheriff’s station, a deputy said at mid-afternoon that “strangely enough, there’s been virtually nothing” in the way of slide problems--so far.

As of 8 p.m., San Diego street crews reported no problems with mud slides beneath hillsides charred by the Normal Heights fire June 30.

Off Dana Point, 21-year-old San Clemente resident Frank Wouters and his two passengers, Alan Owings, 19, of Irvine and Melinda Baxter, 16, of San Clemente, had to leap from Wouters’ 82-year-old Danish barkentine, Perseus, when it struck the rocks.

Sheriff’s deputies rescued them and Baxter was taken by ambulance to San Clemente General Hospital for treatment of a cut over her eye, facial scrapes and a possible concussion. She was struck by falling rigging.

Fog was blamed in the deaths of three members of a wealthy Texas family whose small plane crashed in the Highland area near San Bernardino, less than a mile from the house where they were to have Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.

Deputy San Bernardino County Coroner Bob Rubidoux identified the victims as Norman Bailey, 42, described as a self-made millionaire; his wife, Glennis, 37, and their son, Russell, 15. Their bodies were found late Thursday by hikers in the foothills about five miles north of Highland.

The hikers--a father and son--went by coincidence to the house where Norman Bailey’s parents and friends were eating Thanksgiving dinner and asked to use the phone to report the plane crash. It was hours before the relatives knew for sure that the bodies were those of the Bailey family.

The Escondido car accident occurred at 8:26 a.m., soon after heavy rains began pelting the area. However, police are unsure if that was the sole reason for the accident.

Paramedics took the injured to Palomar Hospital in Escondido. Listed in serious condition were Ann Harris, 41, and Terry Jacobelli, 42, both of Garden Grove, who were in one car. The identity of the driver of the other car was withheld pending notification of his relatives. He was listed in critical condition late Friday night.

Times staff writers Jim Schachter in San Diego, Eric Malnic and Patt Morrison in Los Angeles, and Maria L. La Ganga, Dina L. Heredia and David Reyes in Orange County contributed to this article.

SAN DIEGO RAINFALL (as of 8:P.M at Lindbergh Field) Rainfall past 24 hours (inches). . 0.51 Total rainfall this month. . . . . 4.92 Total rainfall since July 1. . . . .5.41 Total for this date last year. . . 2.91 Normal rainfall to this date. . . 1.70