Swirls of Water, Cascades of Mud: ‘It’s Just a Mess’

At first, Tom Blanscet tried to stop the muddy rainwater from squirting in through the crack between the front doors.

But it was no use. The water was coming in too fast.

The Stage Coach Liquor Store in Thousand Oaks had just become an island in the middle of a sea of swirling, murky, debris-filled water.

And, after wading through more than a foot of water inside the building west of Ventu Park Road, store clerk Blanscet decided to abandon ship.

He rescued a few cartons of cigarettes, expensive bottles of wine and other costly items, and headed out the back door in search of higher ground.

Blanscet said he had never seen a storm such as the one that hit Monday. It struck the Thousand Oaks and the Moorpark areas harder than anywhere else in the county, flooding homes as well as businesses, authorities said.

“It was a disaster,” Blanscet said of the drenched liquor store. “It looks like it was hit by an earthquake.”

Thousand Oaks public works officials were forced to close Newbury Road in front of the liquor store after two storm drains became clogged with debris, creating a four-foot-deep lake.

For much of the afternoon, workers clad in galoshes and fluorescent slickers shoveled mud, logs and branches out of the channels.

“We have people who have been working here 15 years that have never seen anything like this,” said John Brusca, Thousand Oaks’ superintendent of public works.

Bob McCoy, manager of the Allstar Inn at Newbury and Ventu Park roads, said he watched in awe as logs and branches cascaded down the steep Ventu Park Road and into the storm drains about 11 a.m.

“There were large bushes and trees and everything else coming off up that hill,” he said.

Driving down the road was similar to taking a ride on an amusement park water slide, prompting most drivers to take it slow, authorities said.

As the rain continued to pour, local drainage ditches overflowed, leaving nearby residents worried about their homes.

Brenda and Art Hessee said they were shocked to find that water in the channel behind their home off Rancho Road in Thousand Oaks had spilled into their back yard.

“We’ve never had it overflow,” said Art Hessee, who has lived in the area for nine years. “You couldn’t see the grass. It was all water.”

Becky Rodriguez, who lives on Nogales Avenue along the Arroyo Simi in Moorpark, said she was concerned that her back yard would be washed away in the onslaught.

“I’ve been watching it all day long,” said Rodriguez. Slowly, she said, the heavy rain has eaten away the ground.

“I don’t know if this is going to hold on through the night,” she said, grasping the chain-link fence.

Margie Mertz, 72, a resident of Chiquita Lane in Thousand Oaks, said she was up all night trying to keep water from gushing through a hole in the foundation of her home and into her kitchen.

“Every time it rains, that fills up,” she said, inspecting the large gash.

Neighbor Scott Campbell crouched on his roof in the pouring rain, hammering sheets of plastic to the wood shingles in an attempt to stop it from leaking.

“I’m putting plastic over it until it stops raining,” Campbell said.

After some of the water had subsided shortly after 3 p.m., Blanscet said he decided to return to the liquor store.

When he opened the door, a river of muddy water carrying bags of potato chips and Twinkies flowed onto the sidewalk. Inside, shelves and coolers had been toppled as the water reached almost three feet high, he said.

He said he was unsure how much damage was caused by the water.

“It’s just a mess,” Blanscet said. “All the wine displays have floated away.”

Correspondent Maia Davis and staff writer Carlos V. Lozano contributed to this story.

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics from 8 a.m. Sunday until 8 p.m. Monday from the Ventura County Flood Control District. Annual rainfall is measured from Oct. 1, the start of the official rain year.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location since Sunday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 4.50 11.36 8.11 Casitas Dam 4.03 14.07 14.12 El Rio N/A N/A N/A Fillmore 3.93 12.46 11.44 Moorpark 3.75 10.99 8.80 Ojai 3.94 13.77 12.66 Upper Ojai 3.08 13.74 13.65 Oxnard 3.26 11.02 8.69 Piru 2.93 12.15 10.27 Port Hueneme 3.15 10.53 8.54 Santa Paula 4.71 13.67 10.62 Simi Valley 3.77 12.21 8.46 Thousand Oaks 4.14 12.62 9.13 Ventura Govt. Center 4.16 11.77 9.61