After day of heavy rains, residents of Southern California brace for more

Second in series of storms expected to hit Calif.

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. — Southern California was bracing Tuesday for another day of rain as the second of three back-to-back storms expected to hit the state this week approached the coast.

Forecasters posted a flash flood watch for areas scarred by last summer’s wildfires in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

High surf advisories remained in effect, with waves 15 to 18 feet reported along the Central Coast from Point Conception north to Cape San Martin.

A rainstorm that pounded much of the state Monday moved on without causing major damage, but not before prompting evacuations, cutting power to thousands and forcing Disneyland to close several hours early.

The next storm was expected to bring rainfall totals of 1 to 3 inches along the coast and valleys and up to 6 inches in the mountains.

It’s also expected to be colder and could drop snow at elevations of 5,000 feet, said Bill Hoffer, spokesman for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Forecasters said storms lasting through Friday could drop a total of 20 inches of rain on Southern California.

On Monday, authorities ordered nearly 200 homes evacuated or put on alert in foothill communities just below areas devastated by the massive Station wildfire, which charred more than 250 square miles of Angeles National Forest in August. Authorities later invited all residents to return after the storm had passed.

About 63,000 customers in Southern California were without power for part of the day, as flooding and high winds toppled power lines or sent drivers careening into electric poles. Power had been restored to all but about 10,000 customers.

In Northern California, a plane arriving from Dallas made an emergency landing at San Jose International Airport because of the storm, and a 21-year-old Kern County man was killed when a tree toppled on his house.

In Orange County, the downpour caused a roof to collapse on employees at a medical lab in Santa Ana. No one was injured.

In San Bernardino County, authorities in Victorville rescued four teenagers who became trapped by a 6-foot wall of rising water in a storm drain.

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Associated Press Writers Gillian Flaccus and Jacob Adelman in Los Angeles and Louise Chu in San Francisco contributed to this report.