Storm Damage at $68 Million, Still Climbing

Damage estimates topped $68 million and continued to climb Tuesday as property owners and public officials began the arduous task of cleaning up after the winter storm that ravaged a 250-mile stretch of the coast from Santa Barbara south to the Mexican city of Ensenada.

Wind-driven surf threatened oceanfront structures again Tuesday as tides peaked above 7 feet at 8:38 a.m., but the waves were considerably smaller than the 25-foot breakers that destroyed part of a pier, damaged homes, restaurants and a hotel and forced scores of beachfront residents and visitors to flee on Sunday and Monday.

Sandbag levees, bulldozed beams and rock-pile seawalls hastily erected during the night did their job on Tuesday, and there were few reports of additional damage.

Damage Believed Over

“Everything we have done is holding,” said Battalion Chief Gordon Pearson of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Forecasters said the tides and surf should diminish even further today, and no further damage was expected.

Activation of a special task force to deal with applications for tax reductions on property damaged by the storm was announced Tuesday by Los Angeles County Tax Assessor John L. Lynch. Lynch said the property owners have 60 days to report any damage to his office.

California’s Republican senator, Pete Wilson, joined Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana Tuesday morning for a helicopter survey of Redondo Beach--the city hardest hit by the surf--where damage was estimated at more than $16 million.

The supervisors later declared a state of emergency and asked Gov. George Deukmejian to declare the stricken communities a disaster area. Wilson said the supervisors’ actions would pave the way for federal assistance for businessmen and homeowners who suffered property damage.

Boaters plied Redondo’s King Harbor Tuesday, pulling out debris that included logs, boards, pilings and assorted flotsam. Because undermined foundations in Redondo Beach posed the threat of further collapse, most business owners were prevented from returning to start mucking out the hotel, shops and 13 restaurants there that were heavily damaged by the encroaching sea Sunday and Monday.

Thirteen people who crossed police lines in the King Harbor area without authorization were arrested on suspicion of looting early Tuesday morning after they ignored orders to halt, Redondo Beach police said.

Restaurateur’s Appraisal

The manager of the Chart House restaurant, Chris Blesius, was one of the few authorized to enter police lines. He and the general manager, Barry Host, surveyed the damage at the Redondo Beach restaurant with insurance appraisers Tuesday in preparation for what promised to be a massive cleanup job.

“The downstairs bar was torn apart by the waves,” he said. “Upstairs--the main dining room--it’s mostly water damage. . . .”

Despite the explosive force of the water, Blesius said, the diners simply got up calmly--abandoning their food--and walked quietly out of the building.

“It was something, though,” he said. “You don’t get people to walk away from a lobster very often.”

In Malibu, where Monday’s waves had knocked out windows, torn away sun decks and ripped out fencing, Ned Brown spent Tuesday morning on his knees, carefully cleaning his new rust-colored rugs.

First he tried brooms and a vacuum cleaner, then a steam cleaner that extracted the water that had poured in through a second-story window at the height of the storm.

The rug didn’t look too bad, but it was only the tip of the iceberg.

Workmen were already down under his house, trying to shore up what was left of the pilings and seawall.

“I’ve called the painter, the fence man, the cement man, the gas company, the water company,” he said. “Have I left anyone out?”

Walking out his front door, which was reachable from the street only by a folded picnic table and boards spread out to bridge another undermined area, he pointed to a 12-foot hole in the driveway.

He explained that when his wife, Myra, tried to drive their Cadillac out of the garage, it began sinking, along with the pavement under it. She jumped free, but the car sank to the bottom of the pit.

“That’s another thing I almost forgot,” Brown said. “I’ve got to go car shopping soon, too.”

Brian Shaneman, who had worked all night sandbagging a home on Malibu Road, admitted that he was a bit annoyed when the surf fizzled out on Tuesday and didn’t even reach the barricade he’d built. He said he’d hoped to emerge “victorious” in a struggle against the elemental forces of the sea.

In Huntington Beach, where waves tore 250 feet from the tip of the 1,750-foot pier, seas were glassy Tuesday, and lifeguards reopened the beaches after the morning high tide passed without incident. Road crews scraped mud and debris from Pacific Coast Highway, which was closed to traffic for hours in the Bolsa Chica State Beach area.

Search for Fishing Boats

Damage in Orange County was estimated at $5.5 million. In San Diego County, where numerous homes were flooded in the Del Mar area, the figure was placed at $6.8 million. Both counties’ figures were preliminary and were expected to rise.

Coast Guard officials searched for two San Diego-based fishing vessels believed to be about 110 miles south of that city. The Kitty Lee and the Cathryn--each with two people aboard--had last been heard from early Monday morning.

Officials in Mexico reported Tuesday that 22 boats in Ensenada Harbor--most of them commercial fishing craft--were hurled against the rocky shore by the storm. Four of the boats sank, and damage to the fleet was estimated at more than $40 million.

Two charter boats off the coast of Baja California--both of them carrying U.S. passengers--foundered in the heavy seas, but all those aboard were rescued by Mexican maritime authorities.

The onslaughts from the ocean were the final blows from a winter storm that had swept into Southern California on gale-force winds before dawn Sunday, killing three people who apparently were asphyxiated in their snow-buried car in the Angeles National Forest and four others in a plane that crashed into a hillside in Newhall during a driving downpour.

In addition, police said a transient apparently succumbed to the cold in a Skid Row alcove before dawn Monday--the eighth death attributed to the inclement weather.

The three asphyxiation victims were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office Tuesday as William Jimenez, 18, Fred Perous, 24, and Dolores Morales, 17, all of Los Angeles.

The plane crash victims, all identified Monday, were Lt. Harry Parson, 50, his wife, Deputy Theresa Pinocchio, 38, both of Long Beach, and Capt. George E. Reed, 43, and his wife, Rosemarie Reed, 47, both of Glendale. All four were members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The transient remained unidentified Tuesday.

The storm brought up to two feet of snow to Southern California’s mountains, temporarily blocking most roads above 4,000 feet, including Interstate 5, the main artery to the north. About 100 vehicles stranded overnight in snow on Highway 58 in the Tehachapi Mountains were finally dug out Monday afternoon.

The storm--which moved well east Monday afternoon, leaving clear, bright sunny weather here in its wake--brought blizzard conditions Tuesday to Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa.

Times staff writers Ralph Frammolino in San Diego, Karen Roebuck in Redondo Beach and Victor Merina in Los Angeles contributed to this story.