Rain

It took Rafael Nadal only 33½ minutes to finally finish off his 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-0 U.S. Open quarterfinal win over 11th seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile at Arthur Ashe Stadium. This match had begun Thursday night but been halted by rain with Nadal ahead 7-6 (4), 6-6, 3-2 and its continuation was rained out along with the rest of the schedule Friday. But today Nadal won the first six points, including four straight to finish the second set tiebreak. Nadal's strength early on this day was patience.

A powerful winter-like storm is expected to batter fire-ravaged hillsides in Los Angeles County with 3 to 6 inches of rain beginning tonight and lasting through early Wednesday morning. As news of the coming wet weather circulated Monday, residents in charred foothill areas scrambled to fill sandbags or pack their belongings and flee areas prone to flooding. Officials also worked to place huge concrete mudslide barriers along roads in areas including La Cañada Flintridge. The storm, which originated in the Gulf of Alaska, is expected to combine with moisture-laden remnants of a typhoon from the western Pacific, making the system wetter than normal, the National Weather Service said.

Any Los Angeles homeowner with a roof and an interest in rainwater harvesting may want to apply for a free rain barrel installation from the city. The rainwater harvesting pilot program, which kicked off in July, still has 170 openings for installations, each of which includes a free 55-gallon rain barrel and free setup. Designed to conserve potable water and reduce the amount of polluted rainwater that runs untreated into the ocean, the $1-million pilot plan has enough funds to outfit 600 homes with one rain barrel each.

Heavy rains have destroyed or damaged hundreds of shelters housing ethnic Tamils displaced during Sri Lanka's civil war, the United Nations said Monday. The weekend flooding has added to concern over the welfare of nearly 300,000 people who have been living in tents and makeshift shelters since the May defeat by government forces of the Tamil Tigers, ending their 25-year armed campaign for a homeland for the ethnic Tamil minority. Parts of the Manik Farm camp in the island's northeast were inundated, and about 1,925 shelters may have been damaged or destroyed, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.

Rescue workers dug for a second day Saturday through mud and debris, searching for about 30 people believed caught in a mudslide that has killed at least 21 in Sicily. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he feared that the death toll from Italy's worst mudslides in a decade could rise to 50. Berlusconi is expected to survey the area by helicopter today, his office said. Rivers of mud unleashed by heavy rains flooded parts of Messina, a city in eastern Sicily, on Friday, sweeping away cars and collapsing buildings.

If meteorologists are right, the storm of the year may be on its way to Steven Hand's backwoods patch of eastern Orange County, potentially transforming the steep, charred slopes encircling his family home into fast-moving rivers of mud and rocks. He knows all this, but on Thursday he just shrugged. "You can't stop a mudslide," said Steven, 16, who has lived on his family's isolated 14-acre plot in Modjeska Canyon his whole life.

In what is believed to be an unprecedented move, Santa Anita canceled racing for a second consecutive day Sunday as the troubles caused by heavy rain and an ongoing drainage problem with the racetrack's new synthetic surface worsened. Fans already at the track were informed just before 11:30 a.m. that there would be no live racing, only simulcast racing, and they would get rain checks redeemable on any race day.

A fierce winter storm left the Southland's mountain regions battered and snow-crusted Thursday, and hundreds of motorists found themselves stranded along Interstate 5 in the Tejon Pass after public safety officials ordered the key artery closed indefinitely as they braced for yet another icy tempest.

The wave of storms battering Southern California began to take its toll Friday, causing avalanches that killed one skier and left another near death in Wrightwood, flooding roads and threatening additional damage as more rain approaches. The 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.

A cloud of uncertainty has been hanging over today's marquee Sunshine Millions event essentially since the 71st Santa Anita winter/spring meet opened the day after Christmas. And that cloud is among the dark ones hovering over the horse racing industry in general and Santa Anita in particular.