Slick preview of what’s to come

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- Light rain sprinkled through the area Monday,

previewing heavier rainfall expected later in the week.

“It will be heavy at times,” said National Weather Service forecaster

Stan Wasowski. “It’s not continuous. It will be unsettled through

Tuesday.”

For the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Monday, Newport Beach received

0.42 inches of rain, a forecaster at the service said. No data was

available for Costa Mesa.

Along with the rainfall came the car wrecks. The driver of a white

Porsche spun out at 9:26 a.m. as he headed southbound on the Costa Mesa

Freeway.

The driver flipped the car on its side near the Del Mar Avenue

offramp, after which several other drivers stopped to help him out of the

vehicle. The driver, who had not been identified by press time, was not

hurt, California Highway Patrol dispatcher Bryan Bruning said.

In another noninjury crash, the driver of a pickup truck heading

northbound near the Harbor Boulevard offramp in Costa Mesa hit the center

divider of the San Diego Freeway. The truck hit the divider traveling at

60 mph at 6:30 a.m. then careened into another car.

Newport Beach police reported a minor traffic accident in the 500

block of Fullerton Street early Monday. No one was hurt.

Things were not so calm down by the water’s edge, however. As rain

fell, a load of trash washed onto the Newport Beach shoreline at the

Huntington Beach border. A basketball, pillow, tennis balls and other

refuse spilled out of the Santa Ana River.

“That’s actually pretty standard,” Newport Beach Lifeguard Boyd

Mickley said. “I’ve seen a washing machine come out of the river.”

Not everyone brushed off the refuse spill.

“All that flotsam comes down at us,” Defend the Bay’s Bob Caustin

said. “It’s like it’s a trash can. It concerns me terribly.”

Because of the rain, a general health advisory for the waters remained

in effect off Newport Beach.