Avalanches claim another victim
The body of veteran character actor Christopher Allport is found near Wrightwood, the third such death. A missing snowboarder is found. More rain is expected tonight.
A third person was found dead today near Wrightwood at the Mountain High ski resort in the San Gabriel Mountains after avalanches hit the area on Friday.
Searchers discovered the man, identified by sources as Christopher Allport, 60, a veteran character actor from Santa Monica, at about 9:45 a.m.
An experienced backcountry skier, he had been skiing off bounds, according to L.A. County Sheriff Deputy John Johnston. Searchers had been looking for him since Friday night when they had been alerted by a friend with whom he was skiing. Johnston said Allport's body was found under 10 feet of snow.
Earlier this morning, a rescue helicopter spotted a missing snowboarder. Officials said Oscar Gonzales of Westminster, 24, had skied down rugged terrain from which there was no way back up. He had hunkered down for the night in an abandoned small plane.
Paramedics examined Gonzales and found only a few bumps and bruises. Released to his family, "He is alive and well," said Dana Bee, a deputy coroner for Los Angeles County.
"We're all very relieved," said Gonzales' godmother, Aurora Gonzales of Lake Forest, who learned this morning that he was found. She described her godson as an expert snowboarder.
To make rescue efforts safer, crews were creating small avalanches to avoid potentially bigger ones.
The slopes at the resort were filled with skiers and snowboarders this morning under bright sunshine.
But a new round of storms was expected to begin about 6 tonight, bringing up to 5 inches of rain to Los Angeles County, up to 3 inches in Orange County and up to 8 inches in Riverside and San Bernardino counties by Monday morning.
"The ground is already saturated with water, so this new rainfall will just hit the ground and start running," said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Seto said that showers could increase to thunderstorms around midnight. Between 2 and 4 inches of rain is expected to fall on coastal areas, with 4 to 8 inches inland.
In areas above 6,000 feet, snow is expected to begin falling around 6 p.m. and by Sunday morning could be as low as 4,000 feet. The Wrightwood area could get another 1 to 2 feet of snow. "That's going to cause some problems," Seto said.
Johnston, a member of the Antelope Valley Search and Rescue, warned, "Rescuers are putting their lives in danger whenever we go out in these conditions."
