A potent storm dumped up to two feet of snow in the mountains of the West on Monday after hammering California's coast with 12-foot waves that destroyed a restaurant, washed away part of a hotel and damaged beach homes.

At least seven deaths were blamed on the storm in California before it set off on a track expected to send it over the Plains by today. Five died on ice-slickened highways in Missouri and 10 died Sunday and Monday in plane crashes in five states linked to fog.

More than 20 inches of snow fell at Monticello in southern Utah, with 18.8 inches at Durango, Colo., and 17 inches at Flagstaff, Ariz., the National Weather Service said. Up to two feet of snow fell in northern California.

THE HEART of the storm was a low pressure system so strong that it sent barometers plunging to 29.25, the lowest level measured at Los Angeles in 100 years of record-keeping, forecasters said. And it created breakers of up to 14 feet at Los Angeles that coincided with a seven-foot-high tide Monday morning.

Los Angeles County officials closed all piers and reported flooding at most beaches.

Among beachfront houses damaged at Malibu was singer Joni Mitchell's, which is for up sale for $3 million, witnesses said.

"I've seen some boats floating by.... I just saw my neighbor's (comedian Don Rickles') deck float by a minute ago," said "Dallas" star Larry Hagman, a longtime resident of the exclusive Malibu Colony on the coast northwest of Los Angeles.

The last 100 feet of the Huntington Beach Pier collapsed into the battering waves 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles, taking a cafe with it late Sunday.

The south end of the three-level Portofino Inn at Redondo Beach collapsed into the surf Sunday night and continued crumbling Monday, said city Fire Department spokeswoman Carolyn Franck. More than 100 guests fled.