Cold Front Devastates Agriculture in County : Weather: Farmers may lose more than $100 million. Hardest hit were nurseries and cut-flower, lemon and avocado growers.

Subfreezing temperatures driven by an Arctic front devastated more than $100 million in crops and threaten to wreak more economic destruction, a Ventura County agricultural official said Monday.

Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Jim Fullmer said preliminary economic assessments from the weekend chill indicate that at least a seventh of the county’s $806 million agricultural industry was damaged.

It was twice as bad as a December, 1987, frost, when $51.4 million in crops were lost, Fullmer said.

“This frost is going to be considerably worse,” he said. “A couple of areas are just really blasted.”

Economic losses for the county’s agricultural industry could mount sharply next week as farmers discover trees crippled permanently by consecutive nights of cold.

If a second cold front continues in the same direction, Southern California could be hit with another blast of freezing temperatures as early as Sunday, a weather forecaster said.

Terry Schaeffer, an agricultural meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Santa Paula, said another cold front over northern Canada appears to be heading toward the western United States. Schaeffer said the cold front may bring even lower temperatures.

“The pattern is looking really grim to me right now,” Schaeffer said.

The hardest-hit areas last weekend were Ojai and Santa Paula, where icy temperatures fell to the low 20s and teens. Parts of the Santa Rosa Valley were also hard hit.

Early Monday morning, the coldest spot in the county was Ojai, where temperatures hit 24 degrees.

Fullmer said cut-flower growers and nurseries were hurt worst by the freeze. Some of those growers lost 70% to 80% of their blooms.

Lemon growers reported up to 30% of their crops lost, and avocado growers lost 30% or more of their crops, he said.

The winter chill was not just a problem for farmers. Icy temperatures broke water pipes and flooded residences throughout the county, and gusting coastal winds buried some beachfront residences in Ventura behind a wall of sand.

Lynn Ridout, 45, said it would probably take her and her two children all day to shovel away piles of sand in the driveway of her Belfast Lane home.

“We always have to dig ourselves out,” she said. “This is our snow.”

Meanwhile, Ventura County Fire Department officials reported that they had received about 50 calls in the last two days from people whose pipes had burst.

Forecasters said temperatures are expected to warm today, and overnight temperatures will rise to the mid-30s and low 40s for the rest of the week.

If another cold front hits, one Ojai citrus and avocado grower said he has nothing more to lose. Phil Culbert, who owns a 50-acre farm in Ojai, said six acres of avocados were destroyed in the cold during the weekend.

“Our avocados are a complete disaster,” he said. “I don’t think there is a single one that isn’t frozen. I doubt there are going to be very many avocados in Ventura County.”

Because the farm lies on a hillside, “We rely on downhill air currents to keep from freezing,” Culbert said. “This is the first time we’ve had a frost freeze in 25 years.”

Glen Hackworth, an inspector for the county Agricultural Commission, walked past plumes of frozen irrigation water in Santa Paula, Fillmore, Bardsdale and Ojai on Monday looking at the damage. Lemons the size of small olives had turned black in the cold.

On Foothill Road west of Santa Paula, trees were brown and leaves curled as if they had been hit with a blowtorch, he said.

Many of the growers are still assessing damage, driving around orchards and slicing fruit to find the hallmarks of frost: brown leaves or fruit with flesh the consistency of slush, said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

Chris Taylor, vice president in charge of farming for Limoneira Co. in Santa Paula, said he was frustrated after spending the last three days trying to save avocado and lemon trees from being burned by frost and thrashed by the wind.

Despite a combination of wind machines, smudge pots, irrigation and helicopters, the 4,000-acre Limoneira farms lost at least 40% of their lemons and 50% of their avocado crop, he said.

In Santa Paula Canyon, where temperatures turned an icy 21 degrees for more than 11 hours, some trees had developed a skirt of ice along their bottom edges.

The lemons “are not quite frozen like a Popsicle, but it’s pretty slushy,” Taylor said.

Despite a grim picture overall, some growers such as lemon farmer Will Gerry were spared by the chill and counted their blessings.

Gerry said he sprayed trees on his 75-acre citrus and avocado farm in the Santa Rosa Valley with special solutions to help protect them from frost. Many held up well.

“I see a few leaves burned, but we may have dodged the bullet,” he said. “We’re praying that we’ll be able to dodge the bullet again.”

Times staff writer Carol Watson contributed to this report.