Powerful storm hits parched California

LOS ANGELES – Heavy rain from a powerful Pacific storm swept through parched California on Tuesday, providing some relief from a three-year drought but prompting evacuations in wildfire-scarred communities threatened by mudslides and flooding.

The rain began falling overnight Monday in Northern California, but the heaviest downpours were in Southern California, where recent burns have denuded slopes of the vegetation that helps hold soil in place. Traffic was snarled, and some flights at Los Angeles and San Francisco airports were delayed.

The National Weather Service said up to 6 inches of rain was possible in parts of Southern California by the time the storm ends today.

By early evening, downtown Los Angeles had received 1.15 inches of rain, breaking a 1961 record for the day, according to the weather service. Totals of around an inch also set daily records in Oxnard, the mountain town of Sandberg and at airports in Los Angeles, Camarillo, Long Beach, Lancaster and Palmdale.

In Camarillo Springs, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles, gushing water and muddy debris began pouring from adjacent hillsides before noon Tuesday, prompting the mandatory evacuation of about 75 homes for much of the day. The order was lifted around 6 p.m., but authorities urged people to stay away voluntarily.

A mudslide in the same Ventura County community on Halloween buried one home in mud 3 feet deep, the result of a wildfire that burned the area more than a year ago.

In Orange County, roughly 100 miles to the southeast, about 60 homes in rural Silverado Canyon were under a voluntary evacuation notice. The area burned over the summer and has been the site of previous mudslides.