Storm Drops 2 to 3 Inches of Rain, Rips Out Trees : Weather: Tornado-like winds tear through a neighborhood near Moorpark. Farmers and water officials welcome the deluge.

An early winter storm that dumped two to three inches of rain on Ventura County and uprooted nearly two dozen trees near Moorpark early Monday was expected to taper off by today, giving the area a two- or three-day respite before a new storm blows in from the Pacific late Thursday or early Friday.

“It looks like we had our first winter-like storm so far this season,” said Terry Schaeffer, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

The weather should be breezy and cool today through Thursday evening, before a new front moves in, said forecaster Rick Dittmann of WeatherData Inc., a private forecasting firm.

Ventura County farmers welcomed the rain, which cleansed crops’ roots, washing away harmful salts that accumulate during dry spells, said Alan Laird, deputy county agricultural commissioner.

“It’s a blessing,” Laird said. “It’s a good, deep watering we’ve had.”

The rains also added about 4 inches to Lake Casitas, which serves as a reservoir for the Casitas Municipal Water District, said John Johnson, general manager of the district.

Along the banks of the rain-swollen Ventura River, a workman with a backhoe moved swiftly Monday to close a gap in an earthen berm that had been built around the Ventura Beach R. V. Resort after the river flooded it during heavy rains last winter.

Park personnel had opened the gap during the dry season to allow quicker access to the park’s easternmost trailer spaces. Although they were closing it Monday, workers were not really concerned about the possibility of flooding, said assistant manager Dan Mealer.

“It’s not near as bad as last February,” Mealer said. “Then it had rained for three days straight, and there was all that snow up in the mountains. There’s hardly any snow there now.”

The rain and winds contributed to minor accidents throughout the county, but some of the most dramatic conditions occurred in the Home Acres neighborhood southwest of Moorpark.

Early Monday, tornado-like winds tore through Home Acres, tearing about 20 trees--some 50 or 60 feet tall--out of the ground, but injuring no one, residents there said.

“It hit here like hell,” said Bill Harney, a Home Acres resident.

Awakened about 5 a.m. Monday by the sound of intense wind, Harney said, he went outside to find an olive tree in his yard broken into several pieces and the table and benches in his gazebo overturned.

“I wanted it to rain,” Harney said. “I didn’t want it to tear the house apart.”

The air on Hitch Boulevard was filled with the sounds of chain saws Monday morning as Harney’s neighbors began clearing away similarly damaged trees.

Chris Harvey stood in pouring rain outside his home, cutting branches that had fallen on the road.

“I woke up and I noticed the wind was blowing hard and it just got worse and worse,” Harvey said.

Marlene Einboden said she too awoke to the sound of swirling winds about 5 a.m.

“I got up to get something to drink and then it started, and it was just howling,” she said. “It seemed like 100 miles an hour. . . . It was still dark, so we couldn’t tell what had happened. Then it got light, and we went out and were just blown away by the number of trees down.”

Schaeffer speculated that the damage was done not by a tornado--which would have thrown the trees some distance from their roots--but by a microburst or downburst, a swift, severe wind blowing out of the thunderstorm that crossed that part of the county about 5 a.m.

In central Thousand Oaks, power remained out for nearly 12 hours in about 70 of the 4,400 homes that had lost electricity for about 30 seconds late Sunday night, said Carol Larson, area manager for Southern California Edison.

Power was cut in two sections of central Thousand Oaks almost simultaneously at 11:09 p.m. Sunday--one by a lightning strike and the other by a falling tree, Larson said.

About 70 customers who lived near the downed tree remained without electricity until Edison workers finished repairing the damaged lines about 10 a.m. Monday, Larson said.

Elsewhere, a tree limb fell onto an Ojai house Sunday evening, causing about $20,000 in damage to the house and opening its contents to the downpour, which caused another $5,000 worth of damage, said Ventura County Fire Department officials.

The rain also caused a rockslide that closed both lanes of California 33 in the Meiners Oaks section of the Ojai Valley from Sunday night until 9:30 a.m. Monday, when Caltrans crews finally cleared the road, said Caltrans spokesman Russell Snyder.

The rains also forced postponement of several events in the county.

The Ventura County Street Fair on Sunday was put off for a week in hopes of fairer weather.

And a La Colonia handball tournament scheduled Sunday to raise money to replace police car windshields broken by vandals took in $350 in donations before it was stopped due to rain. The tournament will resume at 9 a.m. on Dec. 20 at La Colonia Park, the organizers said.

Times correspondent James Maiella Jr. contributed to this report.

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics from 5 p.m. Saturday until 9 p.m. Monday from the Ventura County Flood Control District. Rainfall since Oct. 1, the start of the official rain year, is an estimate based on computer updates.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location since Saturday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 1.50 2.88 2.74 Casitas Dam 3.23 4.93 4.29 El Rio N/A N/A N/A Fillmore 2.36 5.09 3.94 Moorpark 1.73 2.73 2.88 Ojai 2.56 4.50 3.77 Upper Ojai 2.48 4.46 4.07 Oxnard 2.80 3.76 2.58 Piru 0.28 3.39 3.13 Santa Paula 2.68 4.80 3.49 Simi Valley 2.17 3.28 2.65 Thousand Oaks 1.97 2.92 2.87 Ventura Govt. Center 2.68 4.76 2.91