Posted on Thu, Dec. 19, 2002 story:PUB_DESC

By Anna Oberthur ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO - After nearly a week of hurricane-force winds, pebble-sized hail, lightning, thunder and more than a foot of rain in some places, Californians braced for the next big front in a series of storms. Forecasters said the next storm will hit the state today.

People took advantage of clear skies Wednesday to clean up from the last storm and prepare for the next one.

More gusty winds and up to 4 inches of rain were expected to drench the Bay Area in the next storm, and the bulk of that storm was expected to hit the Monterey Bay area and head southward toward Los Angeles, said National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin.

The coastal mountains west of San Jose are expected to get the most rain today, sparking fear of mudslides in residents who live in the region's narrow canyons.

"We're working really hard to prepare for more trees down and get prepped for the next onslaught," said Ben Lomond Fire Protection Chief Stephen T. Sanders in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Today's storm will be the latest in a series of wet fronts. Since the first one hit last week, at least nine people have died in weather-related accidents and almost 2 million electricity customers have lost power, although most service has been restored.

In Nevada, nearly 10,000 Sierra Pacific Power Co. customers remained without power Wednesday, while the utility worked to repair what a spokeswoman calls its most widespread damage ever.

The U.S. Forest Service's avalanche warning was still in effect Wednesday for high country above 6,000 feet, as mountain residents braced for another dumping of snow.

The jet stream dipping farther south than usual is the cause of the extra moisture, Benjamin said. Normally, as storms are pulled down from the Gulf of Alaska toward California, they dump most of their rain on the Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Central California get the tail end of the moisture.

But the past week's storms have been taking a more direct route to the state, collecting tropical moisture as they move across the Pacific and skirting Oregon and Washington.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2002