YORBA LINDA, Calif. -- Fanny Liong wasn't surprised that it rained and hailed and rained some more while she waited two hours to file past the casket of Richard Nixon.
"This is a miracle. It never hails like this in southern California," said Liong, who emigrated from Indonesia 25 years ago. "I think it's God saying that he's forgiven him and we should remember President Nixon as a great world leader."
That sentiment was repeated as thousands huddled under umbrellas and plastic sheets as they waited in a mile-long line at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace to pay last respects to the nation's 37th president, who died of a stroke at age 81.
Many parked a mile away, waded through ankle-high puddles and dodged pearl-sized hail pellets to get here.
But even the unseasonable deluge didn't stop many.
"We can't get any wetter, so we decided to stick it out," said mail carrier Patty McMahon, 53, who drove from Bakersfield."This is history."
"It was worth the wait, worth getting hailed on," said Los Angeles banker Jack Shaffer, 57. "He was disgraced by Watergate, but I wonder how many of us would persevere like he did."
Once inside the lobby, there was no mistaking the importance of the day and the man.
Scores of flower arrangements covered the room.
Visitors filed past pictures: Nixon with daughter Julie and her children; Nixon and wife Pat, who died last June; along China's Great Wall; Nixon with Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat.
The closed-casket viewing ends at 11 a.m. PT today.
Nixon's body lay in a mahogany casket, surrounded by honor guards from each military branch. The casket was draped with a U.S. flag that will be given to his daughters after today's 4 p.m. PT private funeral, to be attended by 1,800 guests.
Then he will be laid to rest near his wife in a rose garden fashioned after the White House garden his wife of 53 years held dear. Fittingly, burgundy roses named for the former first lady are in bloom.
Tuesday, after a 21-gun salute, his body was flown from Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y., to El Toro Marine Corps Air Station on the same Boeing 707, "Spirit of '76," that carried him home after his 1974 resignation.
Daughters Julie Eisenhower, Tricia Cox and their families accompanied the body.
President Clinton flies to California today. Hillary Rodham Clinton will join him there.
Clinton, former secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., will give eulogies. The Rev. Billy Graham will officiate.
Clinton has declared today a national day of mourning. Federal offices and major financial markets will close. There will be no mail delivery.
Tuesday, Edward Nixon, 63, was among 1,000 people at a memorial service at his older brother's alma mater, Whittier College in Whittier, Calif.
He's "a brother to a lot of people all over the world, and that memory of the man will never be forgotten," he said.
Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez speculates Nixon would not be surprised at the public outpouring.
"I think the president knew and believed he had the support of the American people," said Vasquez. "We have a yearning for leaders with a vision and whether you liked him or not, you have to admit he had a vision."
Pool maintenance worker George Barnes, 40, stood in front of the casket with his hand over his heart: "The world would be a very different place today without his foreign policy."
Dawn Ostgaard, 36, struggled to steady an umbrella over her baby's stroller, while waiting to view the casket with her four children under age 8.
His "election was the beginning of my political awareness," she said. "I wanted to teach that to my kids and help them understand what his life and death was all about."
