New snow, rain add to California's miseries

LOS ANGELES — Another winter storm battered California on Friday with heavy snow that closed major mountain roads, lashed the coast with waves that killed a boater and dumped more rain on saturated slopes.

Bulldozer crews built sand berms on beaches to protect against high tides, and fire-scarred foothill towns kept watch against mudslides. An avalanche advisory was issued for portions of the eastern Sierra Nevada. Snow was reported in Death Valley.

The storm was the first of three expected to hit California through the weekend. Downtown Los Angeles could get up to 5 inches of rain by Monday night, with 10 inches to 15 inches in the mountains, the National Weather Service said. A winter storm also battered the Pacific Northwest.

One person died and a second was rescued after a 34-foot sailboat was caught in heavy seas and 50-knot winds 11 miles southwest of the central California coast town of Cambria.

In the Eastern Sierra, Mono County authorities were investigating the deaths of two Mammoth Lakes resort workers who were found in their snow-covered car Thursday morning after a night of freezing weather. They apparently started the car for heat, the Sheriff's Department said.

The department also issued an avalanche advisory for the area. On Wednesday, a snowboarder was caught in an avalanche that pushed him 1,000 feet and partially buried him, but he survived.

Flash-flood warnings were issued for some of the areas burned bare in the fall 2003 wildfires. In communities below the San Bernardino Mountains east of Los Angeles, residents waited to see if they should evacuate. A storm last week unleashed heavy debris flows in the area.

Several hundred residents of Devore hoped sandbags and concrete barriers would turn away floodwaters, but the waiting still made for sleepless nights.

The governor's Office of Emergency Services activated its operations centers in Sacramento and Orange County. They were to be staffed around the clock through Sunday to provide coordinated action if expected weekend storms brought disaster.

"We're getting a lot of heavy snow and rain along the Eastern Sierras, even have snow reported in Death Valley at the 3,000-foot level. We're just really getting hit," spokesman Eric Lamoureux said.