Storms Drench State, Renew Slide Threat

Two unexpectedly heavy storm fronts rolled across the state Friday, whipping soggy Southern California with gusting winds, downing power lines and triggering traffic accidents.

In Orange County, the storm-whipped surf dashed a vintage, three-masted schooner onto the rocks in 10-foot swells off Dana Point, where winds turned the ship into nearly 90 tons of kindling. The three persons aboard were forced to jump into the blustery Pacific, where they were rescued by deputies of the Sheriff Department’s Harbor Patrol.

In Santa Ana, the show did not go on for 4,400 young marching band and drill team members from throughout the state. Wet weather caused the cancellation of the annual California Band Review for the first time in 14 years.

Power Outages

And in Irvine, Fullerton, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, more than 5,500 Southern California Edison Co. customers were left in the dark, as wind-swept tree limbs and other debris knocked down power lines. An Edison Co. spokesman said power was lost from just a “few minutes” to more than six hours, mostly during the afternoon.

By 9 p.m., power was still out at about 400 residences in widely scattered areas of the county, the spokesman said. The storm also downed a light plane in San Bernardino County, killing three members of a Texas family, whose bodies were found in the wreckage.

And in Northern California, where the storms clogged mountain roads with snow and pounded lower levels with intense rain, a Friday afternoon avalanche roared down on a ski run at the Sugar Bowl resort in the Sierra, burying at least two skiers and killing one of them.

Richard Williams, 19, of San Anselmo, escaped unhurt. More than 50 people immediately began probing the snow with poles for the other skier who was not identified, and an hour and a half later they pulled him from the slide and took him to Tahoe Forest Hospital in Truckee, where he died a short time later.

Although National Weather Service forecasters had looked for no more than possible drizzles on Thanksgiving Day, the upper air pattern crossed them up by shifting and opening the gate for storm systems from the Gulf of Alaska.

After a one-two punch Thursday night and Friday, it was anticipated that there would be a weekend break of sorts before yet another siege rolls in about Monday.

Ship in Trouble

The 82-year-old Danish schooner demolished by the storm had been bought in late October by San Clemente resident Frank Wouters, 21, for about $30,000. While moving the slightly dilapidated Perseus from Long Beach to San Diego, Wouters decided to anchor his ship off a jetty in Dana Point last Tuesday for the holiday.

But at 8 a.m. Friday, Harbor Patrol deputies radioed Wouters to tell him to find a commercial boat to tow his ship from outside the jetty to safety in the harbor. Unable to reach any commercial boats, Wouters radioed the Coast Guard as a last resort. But before the Coast Guard could reach Wouters, swells dashed the ship into the rocks at about 11 a.m.

According to Sheriff’s Sgt. Dick Powell, the three aboard bailed out of the boat in life jackets. Wouters and first mate Alan Owings, 21, of Irvine were rescued unharmed, Powell said.

Melinda Baxter, 16, San Clemente, was struck on the head by a falling rigging. She was treated at San Clemente General Hospital for facial cuts and a possible concussion and released.

‘Sad to See’

“The storm continued breaking the vessel up, until an hour later the only thing that was visible was flotsam and debris washing on the beach,” Powell said. “It was an unknown boat in poor condition, but it was very sad to see a vessel of that type destroyed.”

When the boat sank, the surf was heavy, coming in rapid, 10-foot swells, Powell said. A small craft warning was in effect; a heavy rain was pouring, and the winds whipped at 20 m.p.h., with occasional 35-m.p.h. gusts.

“It busted in three pieces, and the mast fell down,” said Joe Crawford, a commercial fisherman who watched the wreck from the comfort of Turk’s Restaurant in Dana Point. “I think it’s about a 100-foot, three-master, but right now it’s just lumber.”

Friday’s heavy rains took their toll on Orange County’s freeways and city streets, causing at least one death, hundreds of traffic collisions, flooding and mud slides, and prompting California Highway Patrol officials to announce that residents should try to stay off the roads.

Pedestrian Killed

An unidentified pedestrian was killed when struck by several vehicles shortly after midnight Friday morning on the number three northbound lane on Interstate 5 freeway near San Juan Creek Road in San Juan Capistrano. Spokesmen for the Highway Patrol said they believed that the victim, a man, was going southbound on the freeway, got into an accident and crossed the center divider, where he was struck and killed.

In Santa Ana, 35 marching bands, some from as far away as Sacramento, had to be sent home. Robert Ward, founder and director of the Santa Ana Winds Youth Band, which was sponsoring the California Band Review, said that he and the Police and Parks departments decided to cancel the parade at 9:30 a.m. because of risky street conditions and because the weather would endanger the young musicians’ health.

It was only the second time in the Band Review’s history that it had rained for the parade. The first time was eight years ago, and at that time the show went on. Rain or no, about 25 bands showed up Friday at the staging grounds by the county courthouse, and all 35 were in the area. “Some of the bands would have gone out . . . but most of them saw the downpour” and decided not to show, Ward said.

High Wind Warnings

As the second storm front moved down on Southern California Friday afternoon to blast the Los Angeles International Airport area with heavy rains and winds up to 52 m.p.h., the weather service issued high-wind warnings for mountain and desert areas. Snow was expected to fall to the 4,000-foot level in the northern portions and to 6,000 feet in the southern ranges. Winds and blowing snow were expected to cut visibility severely.

Winds gusting up to 50 m.p.h. were reported in some northern mountain and desert areas of the Southland.

Rain should taper off locally this morning, the forecasters said. Today should be sunny and even a little warmer--until the possible new round of showers by the first of the week.

The holiday weekend’s first weather front, which swept into the Southland on Thursday night, dumped .78 of an inch of rain on downtown Los Angeles by late Friday evening, bringing the season total to 3.52 inches, compared to a normal to date of only 2.39 inches and a total last year to date of 2.22 inches.

The high temperature at the Civic Center was 61 degrees. The low was 53. Relative humidity ranged from 93% to 81%.

El Toro Marine Corps Air Station reported a high of 62 degrees, a low of 52 and 1.48 inches of rainfall by late afternoon; Newport Beach reported a high of 62, a low of 53 and 1.26 inches of rain; San Juan Capistrano had 66, 52 and 1.83 inches, and Santa Ana had 63, 50 and 1.81.

Los Angeles International Airport had 1.64 inches of rain by late afternoon, Big Bear Lake reported 1.40;, Avalon, 1.58; Long Beach, 1.77; Mt. Wilson, 2.02; Pasadena 1.08; San Gabriel, .82; Santa Monica, 1.04, and Torrance, 1.75.

The big worry Friday was for Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and for the Malibu area, scenes of big brush fires in recent weeks and last summer. Although some minor mud and rock slides were reported in Ventura County early Friday, by afternoon there had not yet been any major problems.

But the weather service warned that the Wheeler burn area in Ventura County already had absorbed more than an inch of rain by noon Friday and that if it were hit hard enough by the second front coming through Friday evening, “sliding and mud flows could become serious.”

There was a rash of highway accidents, including a mid-morning 10-car smashup on the San Bernardino Freeway at Santa Anita Avenue in South El Monte. At least three people had to be taken to Greater El Monte Community Hospital for treatment of injuries. Most eastbound lanes were shut for about an hour, the California Highway Patrol said.

Other accidents included the collision of a semi-truck and a van on northbound Golden State Freeway about a mile north of Lake Hughes, where one lane had to be closed for an hour, and an overturned truck on the northbound San Diego Freeway at Pico Boulevard.

Hikers Find Plane

Fog was blamed for killing three members of a wealthy Texas family whose small plane crashed in the Highland area near San Bernardino--less than a mile from the house where they were to have Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends.

Deputy San Bernardino County Coroner Bob Rubidoux identified the victims as Norman Bailey, 42, described as a self-made millionaire; his wife, Glennis, 37, and their son, Russell, 15. Their bodies were found late Thursday by hikers in the foothills about five miles north of Highland.

The hikers--a father and son--went by coincidence to the house where Norman Bailey’s parents and friends were eating Thanksgiving dinner and asked to use the phone to report the plane crash. It was hours before the relatives knew for sure that the bodies were those of the Bailey family.

A San Bernardino County sheriff’s helicopter pilot said the single-engine, four-seat Cessna 177 crashed into the side of a mountain sometime Wednesday night. It reportedly took off earlier that day from Dumas, Tex., where the Baileys lived.

Norman Bailey had called his mother in Highland from Prescott, Ariz., during a refueling stop and she warned him about the weather, but he decided to continue the flight anyway.

High-Wind Warning

To the north, the storms prompted a high-wind warning in the southern San Joaquin Valley and in the Tehachapis of Kern County as the fronts swept through, dumping heavy rain, uprooting trees, downing power lines and knocking all three Fresno network television stations off the air with transmitter problems. An estimated 30,000 Bakersfield residents were without power for the day.

Rock slides caused problems on several roads in the Sierra foothills and there was flooding from Madera to Kings counties. California 33 was closed for a time at Coalinga because of a fallen tree and a downed power pole.

The second storm in as many days also raked Northern California, bringing blowing snow to the Sierra and snarling holiday weekend travel.

The California Highway Patrol had to shut a 30-mile stretch of U.S. 50 near South Lake Tahoe because of snow. Several other roads in the area had to be closed and chains were ordered for other routes.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reported numerous power lines downed and small outages in various parts of the Sierra.

As the second front moved across the state on Friday, there were high-wind warnings from San Francisco to Santa Maria. A third storm was expected to hit the northern part of the state over the weekend, then work its way south.

Gusty winds caused power outages Friday for more than 2,000 San Fernando Valley homes, including some in the Sherman Oaks-Bel Air area, Canoga Park-Woodland Hills area and Chatsworth, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported.

About 9,000 DWP customers in several areas were still without power at nightfall.

Utility companies also reported outages in Rancho Palos Verdes, Westchester and downtown Los Angeles lasting from one to three hours. Times staff writers David Reyes, Dina L. Heredia and Hector Gutierrez in Orange County and Eric Malnic and Patt Morrison in Los Angeles contributed to this article.