Frigid Temperatures Damage County Crops : Weather: Growers in the Ojai Valley, where the overnight low dropped to 16 degrees, are hit the hardest. The cold also burst water pipes and sent the homeless in search of shelter.

Some Ventura County citrus and avocado crops sustained extensive damage despite all-night efforts to fight off the frost, as temperatures dipped into the teens early Saturday, growers said.

The Ojai Valley was hardest hit, with temperatures dropping to 16 degrees, the coldest it has been in the area in more than 20 years, said Terry Schaeffer, agricultural meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

Terry Wilson, whose family owns 150 acres of avocado, lemon and orange groves on Coultas Ranch east of Ojai, feared her whole crop was lost.

The family had taken precautions by spraying water on the trees to insulate them against the cold, but Wilson said it might not have been enough.

“It helps to whatever extent it can,” she said. “But it got so cold here last night . . . and oranges freeze at 28. And the avocados and lemons are much worse off at this point.”

The Coultas crops along a stretch of Grand Avenue sparkled with icicles all day Saturday after the spraying Friday night.

Chris Taylor of Limoneira Associates in Santa Paula, the largest lemon company in the county, estimated that 30% of the crop was lost, despite use of sprinklers, wind machines, frost preventive sprays and helicopters to try to keep the temperatures up.

When the temperature sinks to 30 degrees, wind machines and helicopters circulate the air to raise the temperature above the plants.

“It’s a little too soon to tell, but based on the temperatures and the duration of the temperatures, 30% is a conservative estimate,” he said.

“The minimum temperature was in the low 20s for approximately five hours, which for lemons and avocados is pretty significant. Two hours below 28 and you start to lose the smaller fruit.”

Growers weren’t the only ones affected by the dropping temperatures. The homeless flocked to shelters to escape the frigid temperatures.

By 7 p.m. Saturday, the Ventura County Rescue Mission housed 77 people, and the staff was giving sleeping bags and blankets to those they turned away, Dave Shaw, operations manager, said. The Zoe Christian Center took in 162 people, and another 57 had taken refuge in the National Guard Armory by 8:30 p.m. The maximum capacity at the armory is 70.

Southern California Gas Co. officials reported all-time record fuel consumption between Friday morning and Saturday morning as customers in the Southland cranked up the heat.

The Ventura County Fire Department reported at least 20 cases of broken water pipes that had frozen during the night. The pipes at the Ojai Valley School burst Saturday afternoon, causing flooding in the horse stables.

Some relief from the cold could come today, said Steve Burback, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. Stronger winds and a high pressure system coming in from the Pacific Ocean should begin to raise temperatures today, he said. He expected lows to be mostly in the 30s and lower 40s tonight and in the 60s tomorrow.

Growers tonight will continue to try to keep temperatures as high as possible to avoid further damage.

Dave Buettner, deputy agricultural commissioner for Ventura County, said it is too early to determine the extent of the destruction to the county’s crops.

“We’ll have our inspectors out looking next week to try to determine losses and evaluate the damage,” he said. “It takes a while because you have to see how the crop develops.”

But Tom Pecht, an avocado and lemon grower in Somis, said he can already see the effects of the cold.

“It’s hard to tell immediately what the damage is, but with the avocados, when you see buds and leaves already brown or wilted, you know there’s damage,” he said. “As for the lemons, we won’t know for a week or two, and then you can tell if the fruit has been frozen on the inside. But I can already see that some of the fruit is going to be damaged.”

One grower who considers himself pretty lucky is Phil Culbert, owner of Culbert Ranch in the Ojai Valley. While his neighbors were battling temperatures in the teens, his orchards had temperatures in the mid- to upper 20s.

“We had some kind of air current here,” he said. “The avocados have some damage, but the citrus seems to be OK. We are on an 8% slope and this causes cold air to move downhill a little bit. We have no frost protection equipment at all. We just rely on the slope of the orchard.”

James E. Fowler contributed to this report.