LOS ANGELES (AP) — Evidence is mounting that the El Nino ocean-warming phenomenon in the Pacific will spawn a rainy winter in California, potentially easing the state's punishing drought but also bringing the risk of chaotic storms like those that battered the region in the late 1990s. Waves pounded the coast, mudslides rolled down mountainsides and floods swamped homes and claimed lives. State officials are watching weather models and updating emergency plans, said Kelly Huston, deputy director with the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. The risk of rain is heightened in some areas by recent wildfires that have stripped away the trees and other vegetation that protect steep slopes from erosion. Heavy rain will bring some drought relief, but it is not expected to erase the state's water deficit, particularly if it doesn't rain as much in Northern California, home to the state's largest reservoirs.