Possible Flooding Threat Concerns Officials : Storms: Upstream reservoirs are nearing capacity. The Ventura County Flood Control District is advising residents in the Santa Clara River plain to watch the weather and keep sandbags available.

With another big storm due to pound Ventura County tonight or Wednesday and still more rain forecast for late this weekend, officials said Monday that they are concerned over further possible flooding along the county’s rivers.

While the worst flooding last month was along the course of the Ventura River, officials said their greatest concerns this week involve the Santa Clara River, where upstream reservoirs are nearing capacity.

Lake Piru, north of the Santa Clara River, is expected to spill over the top of the Santa Felicia Dam by Wednesday or Thursday with more rain. Lake Pyramid, farther to the north of Lake Piru, could also fill to capacity with another storm, officials said.

Lake Castaic, the largest of the three reservoirs in the Santa Clara River watershed, still has 13,000 acre-feet of storage left before it reaches capacity at 325,000 acre-feet, officials at the state Department of Water Resources said.

“It’s conceivable that we could get that much water from a single storm, but it’s not likely,” said Lonnie Long, chief of the southern field division for the department. “The February storms brought that much or a little more.”

But Long said water is being released as it arrives from both Pyramid and Castaic lakes to prevent uncontrolled spilling into creeks that lead to the Santa Clara River. Once the reservoirs rise above the dams, the rate at which they spill cannot be controlled, he said.

“But we don’t anticipate any uncontrolled spill,” he said.

Any water release from the dams, controlled or uncontrolled, would combine with runoff from the heavy rainfall expected in the next few days. That could cause flooding problems for farms and farmhouses in the river’s flood plain, said John Weikel, hydrologist at the Ventura County Flood Control District.

Weikel said the flood control district is not advising residents to take drastic measures such as making preparations to evacuate, but he said they should watch the weather and consider having sandbags on hand.

“People who live close to the river should be aware of the conditions and not wait until the water is up to their knees until they start thinking about it,” Weikel said.

The latest storm brought three to four inches of rain over the weekend to Fillmore and Piru in the Santa Clara River watershed. It also dumped the same amount in areas of the Ventura River watershed.

The coastal cities received less than three inches.

In addition to watching the Santa Clara River, Weikel said officials are closely monitoring the Ventura River, which turned into a torrential flow of mud and water after intense rains on Feb. 12, inundating the Ventura Beach RV Resort.

During a period of heavy rain about 1 a.m. Monday, Weikel said he tapped into the county’s system of automatic stream gauges from his home computer to be certain that flooding was not imminent at the RV park.

“Last night’s rainfall brought the flows in the Ventura River to 1,600 cubic feet per second, compared to 46,000 cubic feet per second in February,” Weikel said. “This was nowhere near the intensity of February.”

The storm due tonight or Wednesday is expected to carry several inches of rain for the county’s inland valleys, said Terry Schaeffer, National Weather Service meteorologist in Santa Paula. He said coastal communities should expect up to two inches of rain.

“But it looks to me as though this one will not be as dramatic as the February stuff,” Schaeffer said. “In February, we got almost 10 inches of rain in 10 days. That’s pretty intense.”

Refugio Tellez, who lives in the RV park with her husband and four children, said after living through the Feb. 12 storm, the heavy rainfall early Monday made for a sleepless night for her family.

“It is good to come here on vacations, but not to live here,” she said. “It’s dangerous.”

Fred and Myra Resnick of New York City arrived at the park on Monday afternoon for a one-night-only stay. They said they had checked weather reports and believed that it was safe to stay Monday because no rain was expected until today.

But after Monday, “we’ll keep on moving,” Fred Resnick said.

“We want to be gone by tomorrow,” his wife added.

REGIONAL WEATHER: A3

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics for the three-day storm ending at 8 a.m. Monday from the Ventura County Flood Control District. Cumulative rainfall is from Oct. 1, the start of the official rain year.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location since Friday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 3.64 18.62 11.33 Casitas Dam N/A N/A N/A El Rio 2.66 18.82 23.84 Fillmore 3.72 25.53 16.10 Moorpark 2.65 20.11 12.34 Ojai 2.56 26.14 17.97 Upper Ojai 3.71 32.56 19.57 Oxnard 2.59 18.42 12.30 Piru 3.22 24.71 14.45 Port Hueneme 2.0 17.42 11.92 Santa Paula 3.62 25.88 15.09 Simi Valley 2.63 23.51 12.05 Thousand Oaks 3.13 24.32 12.89 Ventura Govt. Center 2.63 19.52 13.69