Record rain soaks Southern California

LOS ANGELES – A record-breaking storm slammed parched Southern California on Tuesday, cutting off power to thousands, jamming traffic during the morning commute and stranding some people in surging waterways.

Downtown Los Angeles saw a staggering 2.39 inches, breaking a record for rainfall for the date and marking the second-wettest 24-hour period on record for September, National Weather Service meteorologist Robbie Munroe said.

Swift-water rescue crews plucked three people and a dog from tree branches as the Los Angeles River swelled from its usual trickle to a raging torrent.

“Me and my dog, we got caught by the rising waters. We had to climb up a tree to wait it out,” said David Quinones, a homeless man who lives in an encampment along the riverbank just north of downtown. “We were just kind of clinging on for dear life.”

Quinones told KABC-TV that he and his dog were doing OK, and he was going back to the river to check on his camp.

In northeastern Los Angeles County, two people were rescued from a swollen creek near Azusa. In nearby San Gabriel, two homes were red-tagged after their foundations eroded when a concrete retaining wall collapsed along a wash near a construction site. No injuries were reported.

The storm grew after a low-pressure system from the northwest part of the state combined with the remnants of former Hurricane Linda, which formed Sept. 6 in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico and later dissipated off Baja California.

The wet weather was not expected to relieve the state’s record drought but could be a harbinger of El Nino, the ocean-warming phenomenon that may bring heavy rain to Southern California this winter, Munroe said.