Early Winter Storm Drenches Calif.

California's first major storm of the season dumped rain from the beaches to the mountains Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of 200 residents in the Sierra Nevada because of potential mudslides and knocking out power temporarily for at least 300,000 customers across the state.

The unusually early winter storm expanded into the Sierra and Southern California on Wednesday after pouring record rainfall onto the northern part of the state Tuesday.

One man was missing in northern Los Angeles County after falling into a wash during the night as the heaviest rain pounded Southern California.

Flooding and slippery roads caused dozens of traffic accidents, closing numerous sections of freeways and snarling the morning commute.

"I think everybody's staying indoors," said Mary Clark, a dispatcher for the California Highway Patrol in Santa Barbara County, where a 12-mile stretch of Route 150 was closed by rock slides.

Forecasters said parts of the region were getting up to 6 inches of rain, prompting forest officials to ease fire restrictions. Three Southern California national forests announced they would reopen hundreds of thousands of acres Wednesday that had been closed to visitors due to extreme fire danger.

But residents and authorities say the region's first significant rain since April could bring catastrophic mudslides to mountain and hillside communities ravaged by last fall's disastrous wildfires.

"If it comes down slowly and easy, it's a blessing. If we get a deluge all at once, it's a curse," Marvin McMain said Tuesday as he filled sandbags to protect his home in the San Bernardino Mountains.

The northern city of Redding got 3.12 inches of rain Tuesday, breaking a 104-year-old record for the date. Records were also set in Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto and Red Bluff. Wind gusted to nearly 60 mph Tuesday.

Just last week, one fire charred 37,000 acres in Napa and Yolo counties, and another covered 7,700 acres in the Eldorado National Forest, where many of the evacuees had been allowed to return home just two days earlier as the fire danger abated.

Southern California Edison spokesman Paul Klein said it was impossible to know how many customers were still without power early Wednesday. In the north, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said its outages were down to about 24,000 customers late Tuesday.