Mistaken flood warning sent before polls closed
Alert was meant for burn area near Duarte, not all of L.A. County; at least 1 dies in storm.
A flash-flood warning mistakenly went out to a far larger area than intended Tuesday as a heavy storm continued to lash Southern California, killing at least one person and forcing multiple swift-water rescue attempts.
The warning, which was meant for about 1,500 people in the Fish fire burn area east of Duarte, went wide when a “glitch” changed the small, targeted area to all of L.A. County, according to the National Weather Service. The warning was canceled, and a corrected warning was sent to those in the burn scar area.
The L.A. County registrar’s office sought to keep voters from being deterred to heading out to polls, noting in a tweet at 4:40 p.m. that officials confirmed the flooding threat was “for a very isolated area.”
“Vote Centers and Ballot Drop Boxes remain open until 8PM and voter participation is encouraged,” the tweet said.
Tuesday morning, one person was killed and two people were missing after rushing stormwater washed away a group of people in Ontario as rain pounded the region.
The incident was reported around 9:45 a.m. in the wash in the 1200 block of East 4th Street in Ontario, officials said.
Six people who were believed to have been living in the wash were swept up in a flash of water. Rescuers lined the wash for a search and rescue operation and had pulled three people out of the water by noon.
An unidentified man was found dead in a drainage
basin, officials said. Two people remained unaccounted for as search efforts continued throughout the afternoon and early evening.
In the San Bernardino Mountains, heavy rainfall caused a creek bed to swell near the Cajon Pass on the 15 Freeway, where the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District’s swift water team rescued a man whose vehicle was overcome by water.
The surge forced the man to flee through the sunroof and eventually swept the car nearly a quarter of a mile down the road, said Mike McClintock, battalion chief with the San Bernardino County Fire Department. The man was not injured, McClintock said.
Crews were also searching Tuesday evening for a person in the Los Angeles River.
Los Angeles city firefighters responded to a report of a person in the water near Boyle Heights around 5 p.m. By 6 p.m., the L.A. County Fire Department had taken over the operation and was searching for the person downriver in the Bell Gardens-South Gate area.
The storm, which is expected to last until Wednesday, was driven by a lower pressure system off the coast, meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Oxnard said.
As of 5 p.m., downtown Los Angeles had received 1.56 inches of rain, Los Angeles International Airport had 1.38 inches and the Van Nuys Airport logged 1.24 inches, according to two-day rainfall totals from the weather service.
Mountain and foothill areas received significantly more precipitation, with Crystal Lake in the Angeles National Forest recording 6.93 inches of rain.
Mt. Baldy received 4.75 inches, Claremont got 3.34 inches and La Cañada-Flintridge recorded 2.75 inches of rain.
L.A.’s central and coastal areas generally received about 1½ inches or less of rain.
“This is a storm we normally see in January,” said Todd Hall, a meteorologist with the weather service in Oxnard. “It’s a great opportunity for some rain.”
In Northern California, the National Weather Service’s Sacramento office reported that a weak tornado with winds of 70 mph had touched down around 1:40 p.m. near Galt, southeast of Sacramento.
A barn’s tin roof was blown off, windows on a bus were blown out and some power lines were downed, according to preliminary law enforcement reports.
A winter storm warning was in effect for the mountains of Los Angeles and Ventura counties through 10 a.m. Wednesday, with gusty winds and heavy snowfall in the forecast.
Snow was expected at elevations of 7,000 feet and higher. Eight to 14 inches was expected in the Los Angeles County mountains, with about 20 inches on the highest peaks.
Snow levels could drop to about 5,000 feet Tuesday night, creating potentially hazardous conditions along the Tejon Pass on the 5 Freeway and the Soledad Pass on the 14 Freeway between Santa Clarita and Palmdale, meteorologists said.
Isolated snowfall could occur overnight through early Wednesday, but significant snow accumulation is not expected on the Grapevine or other passes below 5,000 feet, said John Dumas, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Oxnard office.
Snowfall data were not available Tuesday night.
A high wind warning for the Antelope Valley was in effect until 10 p.m. Tuesday, the weather service said. Southwest winds of 30-45 mph, with gusts up to 70 mph, were expected.
Orange County and portions of the Inland Empire were also soaked Tuesday. The weather service issued a flash-flood watch for the Bond and Silverado burn scar areas through Wednesday morning.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department escalated voluntary evacuations warning Tuesday morning into mandatory evacuation orders for Silverado Canyon, Williams Canyon and Modjeska in the Bond fire burn area, in the foothills of the Santa Ana mountains.
The communities of Oak Glen, Forest Falls, Mountain Home Village, Angelus Oaks and Northeast Yucaipa in the Apple and El Dorado fire burn areas were placed under an evacuation order midday Tuesday, Yucaipa police said in a tweet.
The San Bernardino Mountains received significant rainfall, with the middle fork of Lytle Creek recording 8.47 inches as of about 6 p.m., and Panorama Point receiving 5.87 inches, according to two-day rainfall totals from the weather service’s San Diego office.
Santiago Peak in Orange County received 5.79 inches of rain.
The rain also affected operations at several Southern California amusement parks.
Legoland in Carlsbad and Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park were both closed Tuesday, and several rides at Disneyland, including Alice in Wonderland and the Jungle Cruise, were not operating because of the rain, park officials said.
Another major concern is the wind, said Casey Oswant, a weather service meteorologist in San Diego.
“We are expecting strong winds from the coast into the deserts,” Oswant said. Gusts of up to 45 mph are expected for coastal Orange County, enough to topple trees. Gusts reaching 70 mph could tear through the San Bernardino County mountains.
“The two main impacts are the rain and the wind,” Oswant said. “Snow will still be an impact ... and it will mainly be above 6,000 or 7,000 feet.”