Wet, but not so wild

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- As downpours go, Monday’s rainfall didn’t light up the

news wires.

After a day in which 0.59 inches of rain fell in Newport Beach and

Costa Mesa, public safety officials said they were relieved there had not

been any serious accidents.

“Not a one,” said Sgt. Ron Peoples of the Orange County Sheriff’s

Harbor Patrol, at press time. “We had some heavy rain patterns that kept

up longer than we expected.”

The rains flooded the parking lane on the north side of 19th Street,

near Anaheim Avenue, in Costa Mesa. A section of the street was closed

for 45 minutes during the heaviest rain, but the wet weather didn’t cause

any backups, said Costa Mesa Assistant City Engineer Ernesto Munoz.

The rainfall may have helped a little, though, when the Costa Mesa

Fire Department doused a fire Monday afternoon at a 23rd Street duplex,

between Flower Street and Orange Avenue.

No one was injured in the blaze, which was extinguished fairly

quickly, Costa Mesa Fire Capt. Ron McMinimy said.

McMinimy’s crew pulled a snake and two cats out of the two-story

building. Investigators were still looking into the cause of the fire

Monday and could not say how much damage it caused.

The rains, expected to taper off by this morning, didn’t affect surf

conditions, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dan Atkin. A

westerly swell brought 2-foot waves to the Newport Beach shoreline. More

rain is expected by Thursday, Atkin said.