Posted on 10/18/2005 6:47:48 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A spectacular series of thunderstorms rolled through Southern California, bringing walnut-sized hail and bursts of heavy rain that triggered mudslides and shut down the main highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Parts of the region remained under a severe weather watch early Tuesday.
Interstate 5 was closed for about five hours Monday in both directions about 65 miles north of Los Angeles, because of mudslides and up to four feet of standing water on the road, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Johnny Fisher.
"There's a few feet of mud all over the roadway," Fisher said.
At least one death was blamed on the storms. A gasoline tanker crashed and caught fire on Interstate 5 north of downtown Los Angeles, killing the driver, police said.
Approximately 140,000 customers in Southern California lost power, utilities said.
The fall storms began sending light showers into the region late Saturday and again on Sunday, then unleashed a barrage of cannon-shot thunderclaps and deluges early Monday. They were sparked by an upper-level, low-pressure system southwest of Los Angeles due to depart Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
In the Los Angeles area, mud and debris flowed off a burned mountainside in suburban Burbank, and hail the size of walnuts pelted Arcadia. Hollywood Hills neighborhoods were freckled with pea-size hail.
The storms forced the cancellation of a rooftop concert by INXS that was to celebrate Monday's opening of the new Virgin Megastore in Hollywood.
Freeways were clogged with accidents. In San Diego County, there were 72 accidents between noon and 4 p.m., the California Highway Patrol reported. On a normal day, 50 to 75 accidents are recorded in 24 hours.
Flash flood concerns were raised in areas denuded by big wildfires in late September and early this month, when the region was under the spell of a dry heat wave.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for northern Los Angeles County and warned of possible overflow in streams and other bodies of water in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Authorities in Burbank sealed off an area around Sunset Canyon where 1,100 acres of brush burned. No residents were evacuated, but police did not allow any motorists into the area, said Deputy Chief Larry Koch.
"The sky just opened up, and I don't think it can rain any harder or faster," Koch said. "There were times when it was absolutely a deluge."
Burbank firefighters Jim Goldstein, right, and Dave Johnson, carry Brandy Lewis and her three-month-old baby, Francis Clementine, across a street filled with debris from a mudslide Monday, Oct. 17, 2005, in Burbank, Calif. Mud and debris flowed off a burned mountainside. A severe weather warning was issued in northwestern Los Angeles county. (AP Photo/Ric Francis)
An annual event from mid-October to February, for as long as I can remember, and I grew up in S.Calif.
Shane Strutt jumps a mud slicken
street Monday in Burbank, California.
Oh Boy! Bet three-month-old Francis Clementine was SO HAPPY to have these guys help her mom - what a sweet name and what a storm!
For these homes damaged by the mud and water, what's the difference between them and NOLA, except for the scale of the disaster?..Will the media demand Bush fly out...will Boxer introeduce a $50 billion fed bail out bill?
NO.. why it's just rain and mud
Yes and it was for more than a short time....it was a good midwest style lighting and thunder downpour.
Much discussion from us locals, tacked onto a September Stormwatch thread with some photos here:
I'm sure the recent fires haven't helped things any.
It's been pouring almost nonstop since Sunday night here in Simi Valley.
Oh well at least we get sunshine around 330 days or so a year :). Now if we can just solve the Earthquake, Fire, and Flood problems.
Click the image for the story.
Except that "Francis" is a boy's name. The female version is "Frances". Basic knowledge 101, for incompetent reporters...
"We find that a majority of people don't realize that there is a lot of oil on the lanes, and when it rains it is advised to drive 35 mph, even though it says 65 mph," said CHP spokesman Joe Zizi. "We would like to do more enforcement, but we're out there at all the accidents. We would like people to get to work in one piece."
35 mph????
Even I don't slow down to that speed...
Thunder 14 minutes ago and not the sun is breaking out.
I want that Chippie to fix my eggs and pat me on the bottom before I head off to school, too.
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