LOS ANGELES (AP) - A wet pre-winter storm dumped more than 7 inches of rain on parts of Southern California over the weekend, triggering scores of accidents, a few minor mudslides and downed trees.
Rainfall that began Saturday morning continued relentlessly throughout Sunday and wasn't expected to let up until sometime Monday. It was expected to resume again Tuesday, continue through Wednesday and then, after a brief break, return on Christmas Day, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service.
A flash-flood warning was in effect for parts of Southern California, particularly mountain areas burned in recent years by wildfires, while most of the rest of the region was covered by flood warnings or flood advisories.
Residents of La Canada Flintridge were among those keeping a wary eye on the rain. More than 40 homes in the hillside city just north of Los Angeles were damaged or destroyed by a mudslide in February.
"We are holding up," said Lien Yang, who measures rainfall totals in his backyard and reported about 3 inches had fallen by noon Sunday. "It's coming down steady but not pouring. Therefore it doesn't cause a mud flow or flooding or anything like that. Hopefully it's winding down and we'll have no threat this time."
In Northern California, the San Francisco Bay area caught only a portion of a powerful storm system, the National Weather Service said, although the weather was blamed for a series of scattered power outages in the area.
Moderate to heavy rainfall fell on San Francisco early Sunday, but by late morning most of the precipitation had moved east.
A spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric said about 3,300 homes and businesses in the San Jose and Gilroy area were without power early Sunday afternoon.
Despite light weekend traffic, the rain triggered more than 60 accidents throughout the Los Angeles area, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Many were fender-benders but in the city of Industry, east of Los Angeles, a car carrying four members of a family hit a tree. A 6-year-old girl was hospitalized in critical condition and her father, mother and 15-month-old sister suffered lesser injuries, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Hollywood Park canceled its final seven races of the day Sunday after rain made a section of turf leading to the main track too dangerous to navigate.
The deluge uprooted numerous trees. In Woodland Hills, north of Los Angeles, a eucalyptus tree crashed onto the roof of a home, while a 40-foot tree fell onto an apartment building in Glendale. No injuries were reported.
In Los Angeles, residents of a Bel Air home had to be evacuated when a retaining wall collapsed and mud surged into the house, fire department spokesman Erik Scott said.
In San Luis Obispo County, along California's central coast, a hiker was swept into a creek. He was able to get out on his own before rescuers arrived.
The real impact of the storm could come later in the week, Seto said, when hillsides are saturated with rain and the possibility of mudslides and flash floods seriously increases.
Rainfall throughout the region ranged from 2 to 4 inches in the Los Angeles area, including downtown, Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley, to more than 7 inches in some mountain areas. As much as 3 more inches could fall before the storm departs on Monday, Seto said. The one that follows it on Tuesday could be even stronger, he said.
Rainfall accumulation could total 20 inches in some locations by Wednesday, the weather service said.
Soaked hillsides gave way to some minor mudslides in canyon areas and flooding in a few low-lying streets, but nothing serious, Seto said.
The system hit the state after a large storm front moving out of the Gulf of Alaska met with warm, moist air coming across the Pacific Ocean. The result was heavy rain and hardly any snow, even at higher elevations.
No one had been asked to evacuate any areas, but Yang said he and his neighbors had been warned to be prepared just in case. One of his neighbors, Tom Smith, spent part of the afternoon putting sandbags in front of his house.
Yang's home escaped damage in February but his next-door neighbor had to dig 24 feet of mud out of his backyard and a house just around the block was destroyed. Most of the homes have been rebuilt or repaired since then.
Meanwhile, county flood control workers have kept the neighborhood's streets lined with barricades designed to direct mud flows away from homes. Residents recently added a holiday touch, festooning the barricades with Christmas lights.
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Associated Press Writer John S. Marshall in San Francisco contributed to this story.