国际英语新闻：1 killed, 1 missing in Calif. avalanches

WRIGHTWOOD, Calif. - Mountain avalanches killed an off-duty ski patrol worker and left another person missing Friday as California strained under nearly a week of snow and rain.

A truck plows snow from the shoulder of Interstate 5, which remains closed as a result of a winter storm Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, in Castaic, Calif., about 60 miles north of Los Angeles. [Agencies]

One avalanche struck Friday afternoon at Wrightwood in the snow-laden San Gabriel Mountains. A 23-year-old employee of the Mountain High ski area was pulled from the debris, but died at a hospital later that afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said. His name was not released.

As night fell, searchers were still looking for another person who was missing after a second avalanche about a half-mile from the first, on national forest land.

"I'm sure that the avalanches are due to the amount of snow that has fallen over the past several days," said Tim Wessel, division chief for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

The avalanches were outside Mountain High's boundaries. The resort, which was closed by high winds a day earlier, remained open.

An avalanche advisory was issued for the ski area at nearby Mount Baldy, a 10,000-foot peak about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, and the lifts there were closed, Angeles National Forest spokesman Stanton Florea said.

Elsewhere, utility crews repaired electrical outages while highway crews worked to keep mountain routes open.

Nearly 11,000 homes and businesses throughout Southern California were without electricity, including about 6,700 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers.

A 40-mile stretch of Interstate 5 over Tejon Pass north of Los Angeles reopened after being closed for two days and stranding hundreds of drivers. Highway Patrol officers escorted cars over the summit.

"If it becomes snowy or icy, they'll close down the freeway at once," Officer Miguel Leuvano said.

A Metrolink train on a morning commute from Ventura County to Los Angeles through a narrow, rocky gorge hit a slide of mud and rocks on the tracks. The stranded train had to be pulled by another train to the next station and four other trains had to be halted, delaying 2,000 passengers for 2 1/2 hours, said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell. No injuries were reported.

In the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, mud washed down a naked hillside below a construction site and flowed into two homes.

"We have a flooded kitchen, flooded laundry room, driveway had a foot of water in it," a resident told KCAL-TV.

Rain caused delays of up to two hours Friday morning at San Francisco International Airport, and officials expected the delays to continue.

"We're on a ground-delay program from 9 a.m. to midnight," said airport duty manager Linda Perry. "It is raining very hard, so we are seeing delays for the arrivals and subsequent departures."

Off the coast of Corona Del Mar, Orange County harbor patrol deputies rescued a cat from a moored 42-foot boat just before it went down in heavy seas, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.

A new storm system was expected to arrive Saturday night and dump several more inches of rain through Sunday.