Runoff From Rainstorm Kills Woman : Weather: San Diegan drowns when water floods basement apartment. In south Orange County, precipitation ranging from .57 in Dana Point to 1.94 in Lake Forest closes several roads.

The Arctic storm that dumped more than an inch of rain on parts of Southern California by Tuesday afternoon drowned a disabled San Diego woman, brought down a hillside in Santa Monica and caused flooding that closed several roads in Orange County.

Laguna Canyon Road remained shut down Tuesday night from El Toro Road to the San Diego Freeway, and authorities did not know if it would reopen by this morning. Mudslides east of San Juan Capistrano also closed Ortega Highway for awhile, and Trabuco Canyon Road closed from Robinson Ranch Road to Live Oak Canyon Road, but was expected to reopen by late Tuesday night.

More than an inch of rain fell between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. in Orange County. But in San Diego, that much fell in one hour alone between 9 and 10 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.

In east San Diego, a torrent of water broke through the door of 37-year-old Joyce Elaine Isaacs’ basement apartment shortly before 11 a.m., trapping her in the room along with dozens of her prized cockatiels.

Firefighters and lifeguard rescue crews said the wall of water reached nearly to the ceiling of the unit, which occupied the basement floor of a single-family home. The water in the basement was so deep and dirty that it took lifeguards several minutes to find Isaacs’ body, officials said.

In Los Angeles County, Pacific Coast Highway was closed from the McClure Tunnel to Chautauqua Boulevard after tons of rain-soaked earth spilled down from a hillside and out across the roadway. Caltrans officials estimated that the highway would be reopened early today.

The slide capped an extremely heavy day for traffic accidents, said CHP Officer Angel Johnson.

“This rainstorm took many people by surprise,” Johnson said. “In fact, we had more traffic accidents today in Orange County than the heaviest day of rain a couple of weeks ago. It seems that when it gets sunny, people forget how to drive safely once we have rain again.”

Just after the storm began late Monday, two men were hospitalized after the driver lost control of their furniture truck on rain-slick Laguna Canyon Road and then struck a power pole, knocking out power to nearly 2,000 residents.

Eddie Mendiola, 25, of Mission Viejo and his passenger, Paul Soldrzano, 20, of Lake Forest were taken to Saddleback Memorial Medical Center.

Power to most residents was resumed in an hour, but some residents went without power until 3:50 a.m. Tuesday, said William Springer, a Southern California Edison spokesman.

In Laguna Beach, the flooding on Laguna Canyon Road caused store owners to barricade entrances with sandbags and plywood and close shop early.

Canyon Acres resident Carl Klass spent part of Tuesday shoveling mud off the driveway of an elderly neighbor’s home.

Garbed in rain boots and a bright yellow slicker, Klass said residents in the small enclave that has suffered from fires and flooding had moved their cars from the street the night before so rain runoff could flow unobstructed through their neighborhood.

Downtown, a man holding a bouquet of red roses on Valentine’s Day stopped and watched the murky waters as they raged below the flood channel at Beach Street and Broadway.

“This is amazing. It can easily come over the top,” the man said as he hurriedly left.

That channel, which overflowed in last month’s storms and caused major damage to Laguna’s downtown and boardwalk, was closely monitored Tuesday.

At the Marine Tavern Room, where a handful of customers watched the O.J. Simpson trial, owner Kelly Boyd said the “cops came by when it was really pouring down and said, ‘Get prepared.’ ”

A ridge of high pressure is building over the West Coast and will bring clear weather by this afternoon and temperatures warming up into the 70s by the weekend, said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

“It looks like it’s going to be sunny Wednesday and into the weekend with mostly clear skies, except for some patchy late night and early morning fog,” Brack said.

But the damage already may have been done to hillsides above the tiny community of La Conchita near the Ventura-Santa Barbara County border.

Residents there remain on guard after authorities warned that the rain-soaked hillside above their homes could tumble down at any moment.

“It looks like we dodged the bullet for now,” Ventura County sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Buttell said of the rain-sodden hillside perched above the 198 homes in the town sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean, the Ventura Freeway and the green, unstable hillsides.

“We made it through Monday night without the whole place coming down,” he said. “But the worst may still be ahead of us as the rain settles deeper into the hillside.”

Since late last week, the hillsides have moved an estimated 18 feet, officials said. Deep brown gashes of raw earth protrude from a thick green covering of coastal grasses. How the hillsides became so waterlogged has not been determined, a county fire official said.

Times staff writer Rich Simon in Los Angeles and community correspondent J. E. Mitchell in Ventura County contributed to this report.

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No Sunny Valentine

More than an inch of rain fell on parts of Orange County on Tuesday, adding to a burgeoning rainfall total that has surpassed the to-date season norm by nearly eight inches. Tuesday’s rain, for the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m.: City: Inches Santa Ana: .80 Anaheim: 1.08 Newport Beach: 1.01 Lake Forest: 1.94 Dana Point: .57 Laguna Beach: 1.90 ***

Year-to-Date Tally

Santa Ana readings, as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, for the rain season beginning July 1: Period: Inches Season: 15.92 Last year: 6.63 Normal: 8.12 Source: WeatherData Inc.