20-Ft. Waves Batter Coast; Scores Flee for Their Lives : Historic Pier, Homes Damaged

Massive waves from a powerful winter storm continued to batter the Southern California coast this morning, destroying part of a historic pier, damaging exclusive homes, restaurants and a hotel, and forcing scores of beachfront residents and visitors to flee for their lives.

Breakers up to 20 feet high, riding the crest of a tide that peaked near 7 feet at 7:52 a.m., slammed into beaches along a 135-mile stretch from San Barbara County south to San Diego County that had already been hammered by a nightlong siege of heavy surf.

It was still too early for any official damage estimates, but unofficial tallies put the figures in the millions.

The onslaughts from the ocean were the final blows from a wind-driven winter storm that swept into Southern California before dawn on Sunday, killing three in an avalanche that buried their car in the Angeles National Forest and four more in a plane that crashed into a mountain in Newhall during a driving downpour.

Cold Kills Transient

Temperatures downtown plummeted into the low 40s this morning as the storm pushed east, and police said a transient apparently succumbed to the cold in a downtown Skid Row alcove--the eighth death attributed to the inclement weather.

The storm dumped heavy snow in the mountains, blocking most roads above 4,000 feet, including Interstate 5, the main artery to the north, which was still closed this morning as Caltrans workers struggled to clear wind-swept drifts.

The Los Angeles area was pelted with up to 2 3/4 inches of rain that flooded inland intersections and triggered mud slides as the heavy surf pounded the coastline.

Joanne Stathoulis and her husband, Pakis, were among the guests at the oceanfront Reuben’s restaurant in Redondo Beach on Sunday night when the waves began breaking against the building.

Cheers Turned to Panic

“Everyone was cheering and clapping as the waves got higher,� she recalled this morning. “Suddenly, there was a noise like an explosion and the ocean just broke through. . . .

“My husband was thrown to the floor and people were thrown on top of him,� she said. “No one was cheering then. People just panicked. . . . People were pushing, just rushing around and getting into their cars and trying to get out of there.�

Stathoulis said she could see across to the nearby Portofino Inn, where pounding breakers knocked down walls, collapsed part of the roof and inundated the first floor of the hotel-restaurant complex. About 50 guests who fled to the roof as waves washed around the building were plucked to safety by a KNX Radio news helicopter.

Swept Into Water

Two Redondo Beach police officers were swept into the water but received only minor injuries. An Army Corps of Engineers worker was not so lucky--he suffered a broken leg.

Seventeen cars--five of them police vehicles--were damaged by the waves in Redondo Beach. A 60-foot fishing boat, the City of Redondo, was smashed to pieces in the surf.

“Debris was coming at us like boxcars,� said Redondo Beach Fire Capt. Allen Allred, who helped evacuate some of the hardest-hit buildings. “The storm was the worst I’ve seen. Just shows you Mother Nature is still in control.�

In Huntington Beach, 200 feet of the city pier collapsed before dawn today, joining 50 feet at the tip--and a two-story restaurant--that had tumbled into the waves at about 8 p.m. Sunday.

Restaurant Closed Early

The restaurant normally stays open until about midnight, but City Administrator Paul Cook said the owner, John Gustafson, decided to close up early when the pier, built in the 1930s, began to tremble.

Other piers apparently withstood this morning’s battering without major damage, including the pier at Venice, where waves of up to 20 feet broke over the top of the structure.

About 90 of the homeless evacuated from tents on the adjacent Venice Beach on Sunday were fed and housed overnight at a recreation center farther inland, according to Los Angeles Police Sgt. Mike Downing. He said several of the beach tents were swept away in the surf before they could be dismantled.

Homeless Sheltered

Three other recreation centers were opened to the homeless during the night under a policy that calls for housing street people when rain combines with temperatures below 50 degrees.

In Laguna Beach, residents were evacuated early this morning as at least 20 luxury seaside condominiums in the Blue Lagoon development were battered by the surf.

In Malibu, where residents were evacuated from at least two apartment houses Sunday night, sheriff’s deputies were keeping a close watch this morning as the waves broke windows and threatened to swamp several homes completely.

“The spray is coming in and it’s brought some sand in,� said “Dallas� star Larry Hagman, who lives in the exclusive beachfront Malibu Colony area.

‘Lost a Little Beach’

“We’ve lost a little beach,� the actor said. “I’ve seen some boats floating by, stuff like that.�

To the north, in Carpinteria--midway between Santa Barbara and Ventura--two homes undermined by the surf began slipping into the sea and several apartments were flooded by several inches of water.

To the south, in Oceanside, at least three people were injured by glass that shattered when waves burst through windows in oceanfront homes. Flooding closed a quarter-mile stretch of the coast highway--California 101--in Cardiff. Heavy surf swamped beachfront homes in Del Mar.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board dispatched investigators into the field this morning in an effort to determine what caused a small plane to crash near Newhall during the height of the storm, killing two married couples, all members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Tried to Avoid Storm

The plane, which apparently had detoured north in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid the heavy weather on a flight from Bullhead City, Ariz., to Brackett Field in La Verne, slammed into the grounds of an oil refinery at about 1 a.m., coming to rest about 300 feet from the facility’s main building, according to Mahlon Gillan, a spokesman for the Newhall Refining Co.

“Between where the plane was coming from and where it hit, they have gas tanks and jet fuel tanks, better than a half-million gallons of very volatile fuel,� Gillan said. “If he had gotten it down a little bit sooner, we would have all been history.�

The dead were identified as the pilot, Lt. Harry Parson, 50, and his wife, Deputy Theresa Pinocchio, 38, of Long Beach; and Capt. George E. Reed, 43, and his wife, Deputy Rosemarie Reed, 47, of Glendale.

Longtime Employees

Parson, an administrator at the department’s downtown Hall of Justice, had been with the force for 27 years; Pinocchio, who worked at the sheriff’s emergency operations center in East Los Angeles, was a 13-year veteran.

Capt. Reed, a 20-year veteran, commanded the Men’s Central Jail. Deputy Reed, who worked at the department’s court service division, had been with the department for 18 years.

The bodies of the two men and a woman who died in the Angeles National Forest avalanche were discovered by accident Sunday while U.S. Forest Service rangers were rescuing two Boy Scout troops from campgrounds in the mountains, Ranger Dean Weakman said.