Rain Slows Traffic; 15 Major Jams Reported

It was time for Valley residents to pull out their galoshes again Thursday as the second rainfall of this winter’s predicted heavy storm season got underway.

The showers brought the usual fender-benders and congested freeways. An increase in traffic accidents on rain-slick roads slowed the morning and evening commutes to a crawl in some spots.

But hillsides held and drainage channels remained clear of runoff as the dry soil soaked in the moisture.

“There hasn’t been that much rain,” said Dennis Morefield, spokesman for the county Department of Public Works.

“The ground is absorbing a great deal of it--it is very dry right now. It won’t last forever, but that’s the case right now.”

As forecasters predicted, Thursday’s storm was the third to hit Southern California in a week, although the second storm, expected Wednesday morning, missed the Los Angeles area and deluged San Diego County instead.

By Thursday evening, the third storm had dropped .46 inches of rain in Chatsworth. Woodland Hills and Northridge and Van Nuys received .44 and .43 inches of rain respectively, officials said.

El Toro in Orange County received the greatest amount of rainfall in the area, .94 inches.

National Weather Service meteorologist Vladimir Ryshko said the rain came from a winter storm moving in from the Pacific Ocean and continuing eastward. It was not certain whether the storm was caused by the much-publicized El Nino effect, which is expected to cause a rainy winter, Ryshko said.

“It is impossible to tell whether El Nino is responsible on a storm-by-storm basis,” he said, noting that rainfall is not unusual for this time of year.

Wes Etheredge, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said that the storm is consistent with an El Nino weather pattern but that the much-talked-about phenomenon is more of a seasonal diagnosis than an analysis of a single storm.

“The overall pattern of the three storms ushered in as far south as Southern California was related to an El Nino weather pattern,” Etheredge said. “But El Nino is a seasonal thing; it will affect you over the next few months rather than affect each storm system that rolls through.”

Many drivers spun out and skidded on the rain-slick roads. The Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division doubled the number of cars assigned to traffic accidents, said Officer Carl Helm. California Highway Patrol officials reported 15 major traffic jams by 5 p.m.--far more than on clear days.

Between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m., there were 412 accidents on Los Angeles County freeways and streets in unincorporated areas, said CHP Officer Richard Perez.

The driver of a tractor-trailer traveling north on the Golden State Freeway truck route lost control south of the Antelope Valley Freeway about 1:45 p.m., according to the CHP. Two people suffered minor injuries when the truck skidded down an embankment into a concrete divider separating the freeway’s southbound and northbound lanes, said a County Fire Department dispatcher.

CHP officers issued a SigAlert shortly after 2 p.m. and shut down one lane of the freeway in either direction, Perez said. The lanes were reopened at 7 p.m.

The sun began to poke through the clouds over the West Valley and Ventura County about 1:30 p.m., while the majority of the Los Angeles Basin remained cloudy. Temperatures in the area were unseasonably cool, with Woodland Hills and Lancaster each reaching a high of 56 degrees, Etheredge said.

The first storm in the recent series swept through Southern California on Monday, dropping more than an inch in several communities, including Northridge. Valley communities received between a half-inch and one inch of rain in Monday and Thursday’s storms, said Bruce Rockwell, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Mona Lee Goss, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said that the rainfall has not been significant enough to cause any drainage problems and that the flood channels were relatively clear.

Public works employees are clearing vegetation from the county’s flood-control system and hope to finish by Dec. 7, Morefield said.

All streets in the basin behind the Sepulveda Dam remained open. The dam holds back runoff from heavy rainstorms to prevent the Los Angeles River from flooding the city to the south; the runoff is stored in the basin, flooding a large area that is used as a city park in dry weather.

Police have acted swiftly to close the area to traffic ever since an incident several years ago when rapidly rising flood waters trapped several cars. The drivers, who sought refuge on their auto roofs, had to be rescued by helicopters.

San Fernando Valley residents will wake up to fog this morning, Etheredge said, but sunshine will probably break through in the afternoon.

“The weekend should be decent; we’re not expecting any rain,” he said. High temperatures are expected to range from the mid-60s to the low 70s during the weekend.