High Winds Abate After Big Storm Skirts Area

Fringe effects of an intense winter storm centered in eastern Nevada sent winds gusting to 40 m.p.h. along the coast and through the mountains of Southern California on Sunday, while isolated showers dampened streets and freeways . . . between patches of sunshine.

The high winds posed few serious problems in Orange County, but were enough to call off lifeguard tryouts at Huntington State Beach.

About 180 hopefuls showed up for the tryouts, only to be sent home because of the dangerous, choppy seas churned up by heavy winds. The tryouts were rescheduled for 8 a.m. next Sunday.

30 Dropped Out

Down the coast at Newport Beach, tryouts for city lifeguard positions went ahead as scheduled, but 30 of the 77 applicants couldn’t cope with the turbulent 6- to-10-foot chop and dropped out, Marine Safety Officer Gordon Reed said.

“The wind waves and along-shore current made it difficult for them,” Reed said. “It was all confused--it looked like ‘Victory at Sea’ out there.”

The wind and choppy seas caused a 16-foot Hobie catamaran to overturn and break off a mast in the seas off Dana Point, and a Coast Guard helicopter was summoned to pluck two wetsuit-clad men out of the water.

The men, who were not identified, were not injured, “just cold and shaken,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Leonard Dyal. They had gone out with a friend, sailing a second catamaran, but the high seas forced the friend to return to the harbor, Dyal said. When the other small boat did not return within 15 minutes, the friend told authorities. A harbor boat failed to find the two men and the Coast Guard was summoned, Dyal said.

A Coast Guard helicopter from Los Angeles International Airport was dispatched and located the catamaran, which had overturned with a broken mast, he said. The two men were hanging onto the boat and were rescued, he said. Although Orange County Fire Department paramedics were summoned, no treatment was necessary, he said.

For others, it was as if a little bit of Chicago had blown into Orange County on Sunday. No major damge was attributed to the wind, but authorities on Santa Catalina Island said about 1,200 visitors were forced to spend an extra night in Avalon because seas were too high for water taxis and cruise boats to be sure of safe passage from the island to Long Beach, San Pedro or Newport Beach on Sunday afternoon. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Salisbury of the Avalon station said all were able to find overnight hotel accommodations and were expected to return this morning.

The cold wind didn’t seem to bother Tokyo resident Yoko Yoshida, who spent the day at Huntington State Beach.

Wrapped warmly in red sweat pants, a sweater and a windbreaker, Yoshida laughed as she ran across the wind-smoothed sand, a small kite whirling behind her and then plummeting from astral heights of five or six feet back to earth.

“We’re having a great time,” said Huntington Beach resident Jackie Lahti, in whose home Yoshida, a Japanese university student, is staying for three weeks on an exchange program. “We thought it would be great to show her the Great American Sunday. So we came to the beach.”

Temperatures Sunday reached 61 in Newport Beach and 64 in Santa Ana. A squall Saturday night and early Sunday morning dumped .28 inches of rain in El Toro and .16 inches in Santa Ana before it was through.

Snow Showers

In Dana Point, the high Sunday was 58. But the rainstorm that the dark clouds over the eastern hills seemed to be foreboding did not materialize by Sunday evening.

A gale warning put out by the National Weather Bureau on Sunday from Point Conception to the Mexican border persuaded most sailors to leave their boats docked safely in the county’s harbors and marinas.

But yachtsmen John Zahn of Long Beach and Jerry Rose of La Habra let Sunday’s fierce winds whip their craft along at speeds approaching 50 knots--without getting wet.

“Hey, I’m older than I look,” said Rose, 44, as he pulled his land-sailer out of the back of his truck at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. “I used to race Hobie cats but the cold and wind got to my joints. It’s nice to stay dry.”

Zahn, an accomplished land-yacht racer, described the afternoon winds as “a little gusty” for smooth sailing but certainly something you could play around in. Then he showed what he meant by expertly letting the wind pick up one side of his boat so that only two of its three wheels touched the ground as it rolled along.

3 Times Wind Velocity

The streamlined boats--”perpetual motion machines” is how land-yachtsman Gregg Bingham of Huntington Beach described them--reach speeds up to three times the wind velocity.

The storm is moving into the Rocky Mountains, meteorologists explained, and the Southland this morning was expected to be generally sunny with the northwest winds finally dying away to 20 m.p.h. by late afternoon and disappearing entirely overnight.

Clearer skies were expected Monday in Orange County, with highs between 60 and 65 degrees and lows in the high 30s to mid-40s.

Sunday’s high temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center was 64 degrees, with relative humidity ranging between 31% and 86%. The National Weather Service said today’s temperature should be about the same.

Only .18 of an inch of rain fell in Central Los Angeles, bringing the season total to 7.20 inches, still more than five inches below normal.

Heaviest rainfall was reported at Big Bear Lake, where .94 of an inch fell overnight; in Campo, which received .86 of an inch, followed by Mt. Palomar, with .79; Mt. Wilson, .67; Alpine, .62; Ramona, .61; Escondido, .55; Beaumont, .34; La Mesa, .31; Monrovia, .29; Lancaster, .27, and Riverside, .26.

The wind made itself felt throughout the area, with gale warnings for west to northwest winds gusting to more than 40 knots over the inner and outer coastal waters from Point Conception to the Mexican border and travelers advisories for strong winds in the mountains and deserts remaining in effect through the afternoon and into the evening.