Big rain, big headaches

By: DAN SIMMONS - Staff Writer | Friday, November 30, 2007 10:23 PM PST ∞

NORTH COUNTY -- Friday's nonstop rains landed many commuters stuck in traffic.

"Everybody was driving super slow to prevent an accident," said Vista resident Russhell Schmidt, 30. The slow going on Highway 78 doubled her commute to downtown Escondido to 30 minutes. Not that she minded.

"The rain washed off all the ashes (from recent fires), plus we haven't had rain in like two years," she said. "It was actually a good thing."

While welcome for the moisture and rejuvenation they brought, Friday's rains also resulted in at least 219 accidents on county roads and highways by 2 p.m. and numerous road closures throughout the day and into the evening.

Only one death resulted, when a vehicle went off I-8 in San Diego and landed upside down, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said. However, many accident victims were taken to area hospitals with injuries that weren't life-threatening, authorities said.

The rains were expected to continue into this morning, but should be gone by early afternoon, forecaster Phil Gonsalves said, with a warming trend starting Sunday and continuing into Tuesday.

The rain came as a godsend for many in this parched region. Since July, Lindbergh Field in San Diego had collected just 0.46 of an inch of rain. On Friday, it got 0.73 of an inch by 5 p.m. And it was among the lowest recorded rainfalls countywide.

Balancing it, though, were longer commutes and scattered road closures.

A rockslide on Del Dios Highway caused closure from 1:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., with temporary closures on parts of Highway 78 and area interstates.

A low-pressure system traveling north from Mexico parked over the region Friday and dumped rain continuously from morning wake-up through evening rush hour. Palomar Mountain absorbed the most rain, collecting 4.45 inches by 5 p.m. and prompting fears of mudslides on hills denuded by the recent Poomacha fire.

The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory in effect until 6 p.m. Friday for all areas of Southern California, and San Diego County made recorded telephone calls to hundreds of residents in areas burned by the Rice and Poomacha fires, which include parts of Fallbrook and the Pauma Valley, to warn them that the heavy rains could trigger debris flows and flooding.

But conditions didn't materialize to warrant a voluntary or mandatory evacuation, county Public Works spokesman Bill Polick said. The department had a 150-person "storm team" scattered throughout the county reporting mudslides and flooded roads, Polick said.

By late Friday, only minor mudslides were reported, Polick said.

In Encinitas, waist-deep floodwaters stopped traffic on North Coast Highway 101 at Leucadia Boulevard on Friday afternoon, although they subsided quickly, said an Encinitas police spokesman. The area, near Paul Ecke-Central School, floods whenever there's a significant rain.

In Fallbrook, the weather caused several car wrecks, but did not seem to have triggered any mudslides or widespread erosion, said North County Fire Protection District spokesman John Buchanan.

"We've just had a lot of trees go down, and lots of car crashes," Buchanan said.

National Weather Service forecasters had predicted the low-pressure system would hit southern and eastern regions hard while largely skirting North County. It was expected to make a sharp easterly turn toward western Arizona.

But the system never made the turn, concentrating most of its moisture on North County. At 5 p.m., Lindbergh Field had registered just 0.73 inch, while Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Escondido and Fallbrook all had absorbed between 1.75 and 2 inches, with Vista at the 2-inch mark, forecaster Jennifer Chase said. La Jolla Indian Reservation registered 2.72 inches.

Whether Friday's rains will make history is another question.

"It certainly seems as though it should (challenge single-day rain records)," Gonsalves said. "It's been a very significant event in terms of accumulation."

Record or not, the rains made many area gardeners smile.

"It was so great to hear it coming down," said Bob Socin, 72, of Escondido. "It saves us two weeks of irrigation (costs), and everything is so clean and fresh afterwards."

With the deluge, he's again hopeful his Jeraldton wax flowers will open by Christmas. Rainwater, he said, "opens 'em sooner."

Contact staff writer Dan Simmons at (760) 740-5426 or dsimmons@nctimes.com.

Rain totals (inch count):

Palomar Mountain: 4.45

La Jolla Indian Reservation: 2.72

Vista: 2.0

Carlsbad: 1.94

Fallbrook: 1.84

Del Mar: 1.64

San Diego: 0.73

-- Source: Jennifer Chase, National Weather Service