Rain Stops, but the Soggy Troubles Don’t

The sun was shining Wednesday, but the storms that pounded Southern California continued to wreak havoc on roads, mud-buried train tracks and the Corona Municipal Airport. The biggest headache may now be for commuters, residents and vacationers in the San Bernardino Mountains.

A stretch of Ortega Highway, which connects Orange and Riverside counties, could be closed for a week. In the San Bernardino Mountains, Highway 38 has reopened and Highway 18 was to be open today from 5 to 7 a.m. only, with escorts from the California Highway Patrol. All other mountain highways remained closed.

In San Clemente, a landslide buried 80 feet of railroad track and will probably affect Amtrak and Metrolink service until Monday.

An estimated 200 airplanes were parked on the streets of Corona on Wednesday, a day after flooding from the overloaded Prado Flood Control Basin left about 50 hangars at the city airport underwater.

The water began receding Wednesday, but the airport remained closed. Airport officials said it could be “weeks or months” before flights resumed.

“There is lots of trash, sand and water on the runway, and an assessment team is testing for contaminants that may have leaked from the hangars,” said Corona Police Cpl. Jim Boyd.

On Ortega Highway, flooding damaged a stretch of the winding mountain road, which might take a week to repair. The highway, an artery between Orange County and the Inland Empire, will remain closed from Antonio Parkway to the Riverside County line, said CHP Officer Denise Quesada.

Residents in the lightly populated Rancho Carillo community on the road were allowed to drive home, but only after presenting identification. Employees of the Nichols Institute, a health diagnostics outfit along the highway, were shuttled to and from work.

The landslide in San Clemente caused no injuries but forced deputies to evacuate dozens of people from the Beachcomber Motel, perched on a bluff near the ocean. It’s now red-tagged as unsafe to enter.

Motel owner John Gabay said he “freaked out” when his son spotted large cracks in the lawn Tuesday evening. He inspected the property and found patches of grass separating from the concrete walkway.

“The indentation kept getting bigger,” said Gabay, who has owned and lived at the beachfront landmark for 25 years. “I saw little chunks falling off. Then, all of a sudden, a huge chunk just went. I have never seen anything like that before.”

One building in the 13-unit complex stands 20 feet from the gouge. Gabay, his wife, Karen, and their four children yelled for residents to evacuate as the Gabays grabbed what they could and fled.

The landslide forced the cancellation of Amtrak train service to stations along routes from San Diego to San Luis Obispo, affecting about 5,000 passengers who usually take the train on Wednesdays, said Sarah Swain, an Amtrak spokeswoman.

Metrolink also canceled its northbound runs from Oceanside to Los Angeles’ Union Station. Passengers instead were being bused to Irvine and caught trains from there. Southbound travelers were bused in similar fashion. Service should be restored by Monday, said spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell.

Mudslides and flooding in San Bernardino County also forced Union Pacific Railroad to close its route though the Cajon Pass, an artery for goods shipped from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the world’s busiest port complex.

But the trouble was not limited to land.

A ruptured pipe in Rubidoux unleashed about 4 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Santa Ana River, which spills into the ocean. As a result, Orange County health officials closed a large stretch of shoreline in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

Other spills contributed to shore closures in Corona del Mar, San Clemente and Dana Point.

“I hear those surfers are out there,” said Monica Mazur, a supervising environmental health specialist for the county. “But it’s really not advisable. There’s just a terrific amount of bacteria.”

Times staff writers Kimi Yoshino and David Reyes, and Associated Press, contributed to this report.