Whipping winds and heavy downpours stops tourney

Greg Risling

A chain of storms pummeled Southern California over the weekend leaving

storm drains clogged, downing trees and forcing the closure of a major

golf tournament in Newport Beach.

Officials called off the final round of the Toshiba Senior Classic on

Sunday when whipping winds and heavy downpours stopped golfers from

making any approach to the Newport Beach Country Club course.

“The golf course was totally unplayable,” said Bruce Sudderth, Senior PGA

Tour official.

The tournament finish was a vast disappointment compared to the past

three years where the final round usually provided the tournament’s best

moments. Last year, Gary McCord won a dramatic, five-hole playoff edging

friend John Jacobs.

Golfers weren’t the only ones left out in the cold. Newport-Mesa

residents were soaked first from a storm that brought booming

thunderstorms and lightening Friday night. They barely had a chance to

recover before another system slammed into the area on Sunday.

More than an inch fell on Sunday accompanied by winds up to 35 knots. The

wind inflicted the most damage, knocking down signs and trees.

Irene Rice heard a spine-jarring crash on Sunday morning while she was

cleaning her Corona del Mar home. A 25-foot pine tree came tumbling down

onto her neighbor’s home on Heliotrope Drive. No one was inside the home

when the tree fell, but it startled Rice.

“I thought a car crashed into my house,” she said. “It was such a loud

bang. It shook my house so bad, every picture in my home was askew.”

About 1 1/2 inches of rain was reported at John Wayne Airport over the

weekend, according to the National Weather Service. Just two months ago,

people were talking drought. Now, the rain totals are looking more

feasible and inching their way to average levels.

Not everyone is happy about the timeliness of the storms. The month of

March usually means a return to the beach for Orange County residents,

which translates into profits for businesses. Several stores were closed

on the tourist-friendly Balboa Island on Sunday because of the storm.

“It was bad earlier in the day when there was horizontal rain,” said

Sunnye Collins, who works as an assistant manager at a clothing store on

Marine Avenue. “Our floors had about an inch of rain. But we decided to

stay open.”