3rd avalanche victim found in California

3rd avalanche victim found in California

LOS ANGELES - A brief hiatus from nearly a week of stormy weather was interrupted by deadly avalanches, flooded streets and mud and rock slides in rain-soaked Southern California.
Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties braced for another bout of heavy rain as flash flood watches were in effect through Sunday because of thunderstorms, possible hail and wind gusts as high as 50 mph.

Heavy showers arrived late Saturday, a day after a break in the storms enabled workers to find the body of a third skier killed by a snow slide and rescue a missing snowboarder who survived a frigid night in the San Gabriel Mountains.

National Weather Service meteorologist Richard Thompson said up to 8 inches of rain could fall in the hills outside Los Angeles on Sunday, while 2 to 4 inches were expected in coastal and valley areas. Ski resorts could be pounded by as much as 3 feet of powder.

"The heaviest rains will fall Sunday morning," Thompson said. "It will be pretty steady all through the day into the afternoon." Rain should taper off Sunday night, he said.

Christopher Allport, 60, of Santa Monica, was found Saturday morning, one of two people reported missing Friday after a trio of avalanches swept through off-trail canyons outside the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood.

A family member confirmed Allport had died but declined to give her name or comment further. Allport was a veteran character actor who had appeared on such TV shows as "ER," "Felicity," and "Matlock."

The missing snowboarder was found Saturday after spending the night on the mountain. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy Luis Castro said officials were confident no one else was missing and called off search efforts.

Oscar Gonzales Jr., 24, of Westminster, told the Riverside Press-Enterprise that he got lost when he left the marked ski trails at the resort. "I made the wrong decision about going out of bounds," he said. "I hit a rock."

Gonzales said he was not hurt but he walked at least 13 miles overnight to keep warm, thinking of his 5 1/2-year-old daughter, Jaden Ann.

"I didn't think about anything else," Gonzales said. "I couldn't stand leaving my daughter."

Gonzales told the newspaper he eventually found an old airplane fuselage and slept there until about 4:30 a.m., when he went to an open field and waited until he was rescued by a sheriff's helicopter.

The avalanches a day earlier killed Michael McKay, 23, an off-duty member of the resort's ski patrol, and Darin Bodie Coffey, 31, both of Wrightwood. Both were skiing out of the resort boundaries.

Avalanches are unusual in the San Gabriel Mountains, authorities said, but so was the 3 feet or more of new snow that hit the region in a matter of days this week.

The tragedies didn't keep skiers and snowboarders from swarming to the resort 80 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. About 6,000 people jammed the slopes Saturday, officials said.