More rain pelted the flooded valleys and mud-oozing hillsides Wednesday morning in Southern California's worst weather in years, keeping hundreds of people out of their homes.
The sky cleared for a time Wednesday morning over much of hard-hit northern California, where swollen rivers were beginning to ebb, but more rain was forecast, with the heaviest downpours expected in the south.At least six people have died along the West Coast, including a 12-year-old boy who drowned while trying to cross a creek and a homeless man swept away by a raging river.
The Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton searched Wednesday for a serviceman feared swept away by a flooding creek.
Stranded residents stood atop their cars and homes, waving desperately to rescue crews arriving by boat, truck and helicopter.
Dozens of major roads, including sections of the Pacific Coast Highway and busy U.S. 101, were closed Wednesday by high water and mud, strangling travel in freeway-addicted California.
Freeways were littered with accidents, and a sewer line collapsed Wednesday in suburban Industry, opening a large sinkhole that swallowed a car. Neighbors lowered a ladder into the hole and the driver escaped with minor injuries, authorities said.
President Clinton on Wednesday reassured flood victims that the federal government will be "with you for the long haul" in coping with the disaster. On Tuesday, he declared 24 counties disaster areas, making individuals and businesses eligible for federal aid.
About 200,000 people throughout the state lost power. Nearly 2,000 were evacuated, most in northern California.
Water and mud filled hundreds of homes after the brunt of the storm moved from the northern end of the state to the south on Tuesday. In the Hollywood Hills, Harry and Arnella Grebb were asleep when a wall of mud smashed into their home, pinning a door and trapping them inside their bedroom.
In northern California, National Guard helicopters pulled residents out of the isolated community of Guerneville after the Russian River crested at 17 feet above flood stage.
Brothers Brian and Dave Ridley were on one of the first flights out, and they were cold and hungry. "Our house is gone," Dave Ridley said. "I've been inside my truck for three days."
San Francisco officials closed parts of Golden Gate Park, fearing uprooted trees would fall on visitors. Two of San Francisco International Airport's four runways remained closed because of high winds, and the Federal Aviation Administration slowed traffic west of the Mississippi to avoid snarls.
The San Francisco 49ers, their practice field a sodden quagmire, flew to Phoenix to prepare for Sunday's conference championship game in Candlestick Park.
More than a week after a series of storms began punishing California, residents' nerves were starting to fray.
"We love this house and we love this city, but today I've got to tell you, we hate this rain," said Deedee Gene of Altadena, near Los Angeles.
She kept a wary eye on a saturated, 150-foot hillside above her back yard, where she and her husband had dug a trench and laid pipe to divert water running toward their yard.
"We're really at Mother Nature's mercy," she said.
The mudslide that swept into the Grebbs' home sealed shut the bedroom door that leads to the hallway. "The tree came right into the bedroom, hit them in the bed," said their son, Bob.
"The mud is 3 feet deep back there," he said. "Then the Fire Department came through the middle of the house, broke down that hallway door."
Harry Grebb, 71, and his wife Arnella, 72, were in good condition Tuesday night.
In Southern California's Ventura County, where more than a foot of rain fell in about 12 hours, a transient's body was pulled from the swollen Ventura River not far from where a homeless encampment was wiped out by surging waters.
George Struck, among those plucked from the river by helicopter, said a friend was swept away.
"I couldn't grab him. He just went down," Struck said. "I was coming close to dying. I felt it. I felt it."
At least 33 people were pulled from the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers. Many of those rescued were residents of homeless camps along the river bed who had been warned Monday to move to higher ground.
An afternoon blast of rain turned the streets of the low-lying downtown section of Laguna Beach into rivers working their way toward the Pacific. The downpour let up about nightfall, but left a layer of silt 6 inches deep in places.
Parts of Southern California already had been hit last week by severe flooding.