Compare mesh loop count with number of loop normals before reading the loop normals. Houdini doesn't always write the correct loop normals to Alembic. When a mesh is animated and then replaced by a fluid simulation, Houdini will still write the original mesh's loop normals, but the mesh verts/loops/polys are from the simulation. In such cases the normals cannot be mapped to the mesh, so it's better to ignore them.