Wet weather reigns from West to East

  Sally Ann Stewart;Jonathan T. Lovitt

  01/14/1993

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 04A

  (Copyright 1993)

  LOS ANGELES - Rain and snow lashed the nation from coast to coast

  Wednesday, causing bus route shutdowns in Boston, severe beach erosion in

  New York, flood evacuations in Arizona and mudslides in California.

  South of the Mexican border, road damage from flooding stranded hundreds of

  Americans in remote Baja, Calif., resorts.

  ``I've been in some floods before, but it was nothing like this,'' says Monty

  Crook, 42, who took a week to travel from the tip of Baja California to

  Ensenada, Mexico. ``Down here, you're on your own.''

  Wednesday, Crook and co-worker Dana Lyon, 44, drank steaming coffee spiked

  with brandy while drying clothes and a Chevy Blazer, which had been flooded to

  the windows.

  ``We watched semis and buses wade into headlight-deep streams,'' Lyon says.

  ``The bridge in back of us collapsed. We were the last ... across.''

  Since it began raining last week, San Diego lifeguards have rescued 81 people

  trying to cross the swollen Tijuana River. Wednesday, lifeguards rescued two

  women trying to swim across the half-mile wide river with a 4- year-old child.

  More rain is coming today.

  ``This is what it should be doing this time of the year,'' says U.S. Weather

  Service meteorologist Gary Neumann. ``But we've been in a drought seven years,

  so we're not used to it.''

  Snow in the northern and mountainous parts of the state closed sections of

  Highway 50 in Eldorado County, where state crews used explosion-like sounds

  to trigger avalanches.

  Chains were required on parts of Interstate 5; blinding snow closed parts of I-80.

  Long-expected mudslides began across highways around San Francisco.

  Elsewhere:

  - Salt Lake City broke a record for most snow in a month: 42 inches. And more

  is coming.

  - Flood warnings are in effect along New York and New Jersey shores, where

  residents and business owners were still working to repair damage from a

  December storm.

  ``I live a block away from the ocean, but high tide rolled right up in front of my

  house,'' says Herb Eisenberg of Brooklyn.

  - In Boston, a morning snow storm closed bus routes and caused delays at Logan

  International Airport. A second storm hit as evening began, and 2,000 plows and

  material spreaders began a night-long effort to keep roads open.

  - Schools across Wisconsin canceled classes under up to 13 inches of snow.

  - At least 380 schools closed in Michigan and one person died in an auto

  accident.

  - A Colorado man died in an avalanche near Glenwood Springs, the state's

  second avalanche death in as many days.

  - Arizona has its worst flooding in a decade. About 50 residents of Winkelman

  (pop. 2,500) were evacuated Wednesday, bringing to 350 the number abandoning

  homes along the Gila River.

  Security guard Valerie Avenetti, 28, piled her two kids and a few possessions

  into her car and headed for a shelter.

  ``I lost pretty much everything,'' she says. ``I only had two hours. I stood there

  and thought, ``What do I take?' ''

  Dina Montano, 25, said as her husband, Joe, loaded bicycles into their pickup: ``I

  just wish it would quit raining.''

  Contributing: Bethany Kandel and Sarah Auffret

  El Nino influence on weather

  Ocean temperature patterns far out in the tropical Pacific Ocean are helping make

  this month unusually wet across the USA.

  1. A lingering El Nino, a shift of warm water eastward in the Pacific, has left

  ocean temperatures here about 1.6 degrees warmer than usual. 2. Warm water

  encourages thunderstorms, which pump humid air high into the sky.

  3. The humid air helps feed a ``subtropical'' jet stream.

  4. Humid air from the jet stream supplies moisture for western rain and snow and

  also for clouds covering much of the USA.

  CUTLINE:IN SACRAMENTO: Rescuers wade past a car stranded after Arcade

  Creek overflowed Wednesday. The car's occupants escaped.

  GRAPHIC,b/w,Nick Galifianakis, USA TODAY ,Sources: National Weather

  Service Climate Analysis Center and Weather Services Corp.(Diagram);

  PHOTO,b/w,Rich Pedroncelli,AP