Mudslides trap people inside homes

LOS ANGELES – Mudslides trapped people in their homes Monday and forced others to flee as Southern California was soaked by yet another of the powerful storms that have pounded the region this winter.

At least three deaths were blamed on the weather, and part of the area’s commuter rail service was halted.

Rescuers pulled three people from about 10 feet of mud that flowed into a town house in Hacienda Heights, a suburb east of Los Angeles. One woman was flown to a hospital while the other two suffered only minor injuries, said Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mark Savage.

That mudslide forced the evacuation of 30 people from five units at the complex as well as residents of five homes on the hill above it, Savage said.

The latest onslaught of rain, snow and hail started battering the region Sunday, part of a series of storms that arrived Friday and are expected to continue today.

Since Thursday, downtown Los Angeles has gotten about 6.5 inches of rain. The city’s total since July 1, the start of the region’s “water year,” has reached 31.40 inches, making it the fifth-wettest on record, said National Weather Service forecaster Bruce Rockwell. The record of 38.18 inches was set in 1883-1884.

Early Monday, a mudslide killed one man in a house in the Woodland Hills area in the San Fernando Valley, coroner’s office officials said.

In Orange County, a 16-year-old girl was killed by boulders that crashed into her family’s apartment in a rural area east of Irvine, said Joseph Luckey, supervising deputy coroner.

In Los Angeles’ Sun Valley area, a repair worker was killed late Sunday when he fell into a 30-foot-deep sinkhole created by the storm, said Fire Department spokesman Melissa Kelley.