LOS ANGELES - California was lashed Friday by heavy rains that the parched state needs, but the soaking also caused traffic snarls, power failures and the threat of mudslides.

Even with rainfall totals exceeding 8 inches in some places by evening, the powerful Pacific storm did not put a major dent in a drought that is among the worst in recent California history.

The first waves of the storm drenched foothill communities east of Los Angeles that weeks ago were scorched by a wildfire and on Friday faced the threat of mudslides. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued for about 1,200 homes in the area. Small debris flows covered one street in Glendora, but no property damage occurred, police said.

Forecasters expected the storm to last through today in California before trundling east into similarly rain-starved neighboring states. Phoenix was expecting its first noticeable precipitation in two months.

The threat of mudslides will last at least through tonight. Tornadoes and water spouts also were possible, forecasters said.

Rainfall totals in parts of California were high, but not nearly enough to offer long term relief from a long-running drought.

Downtown Los Angeles received about 2 inches - doubling its total for the rainy season that began in July, the National Weather Service said. The city remained 7 inches below the normal 11 inches. The last time a storm dumped 2 inches of rain in Los Angeles was March 2011.

“We need several large storms, and we just don’t see that on the horizon. This is a rogue storm,” National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Boldt said. “We will dry out next week.”

Without this rain, the service said, this would have been the driest December-February period on record in Los Angeles.

Rain also fell in the central-coast counties, the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. Winter storm warnings were in effect in the Sierra Nevada. About 15 inches of new snow had fallen by midday Friday at the University of California, Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab located at an elevation of 6,900 feet.

Earlier in the week, the state Department of Water Resources found that the Sierra snow pack had water content at only 24 percent of average for the date.

Farmer Ray Gene Veldhuis, who grows almonds, walnuts and pistachios and runs a 2,300-cow dairy in the Central Valley’s Merced County, welcomed the wet weather but said he knew it would not rescue California from drought.

“Hopefully, they keep coming,” Veldhuis said of the storms. “If not, we’ll deal with the hand we’re dealt.”

In neighboring Fresno County, a man was struck by lightning while looking for work at an oil field, officials said. He was found unconscious and taken to the hospital.

Numerous traffic accidents occurred on slick or flooded roads across California, including one about 60 miles east of Los Angeles involving a big rig whose driver died after falling from a freeway overpass.

Two men and their dogs were rescued from the swift waters of the Los Angeles River. Hundreds of miles north in San Jose, firefighters also pulled a man from swollen Coyote Creek near a homeless encampment. He was treated for hypothermia.

Power failures hit about32,000 customers, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Southern California Edison said.

The storm was good news for some other Californians.

Kite surfer Chris Strong braved pelting rain to take advantage of strong winds that gave him about an hour of fun over the pounding surf in the Sunset Beach enclave of Huntington Beach.

“I don’t get to kite here in these conditions very often - only a handful of times - but you put them in the memory bank,” he said.

Surf schools in San Diego canceled lessons and asked their customers to be patient.

“It’s unruly out there now, but when the storm settles and it cleans up, there will be the best waves in the next few days,” said Rick Gehris of Surfari Surf School.

Information for this article was contributed by Sue Manning, John Antczak, Robert Jablon, Martha Mendoza, Sudhin Thanawala, Scott Smith, Gillian Flaccus and Julie Watson of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 3 on 03/01/2014