Storm Finally Lives Up to Its Promise : Weather: An RV park evacuates 35 campers and slick roads lead to many accidents. Another system is on its way.

Campers were evacuated from a Ventura RV park and rescue workers were kept busy responding to traffic accidents Thursday as a subtropical storm gathered strength and delivered much of the punch that it had promised Ventura County for days.

By 5 p.m., the storm that began late Tuesday had dropped up to five inches of rain over the county’s backcountry. About two inches had fallen over the populated areas of the county.

Forecasters said more moisture, including periods of locally intense showers, was expected over the region through this morning, when rains will begin to taper off. As much as three more inches of rain could fall in the mountains through today, with up to two inches in Fillmore and Simi Valley and an inch over the coast before the system moves out, said Terry Schaeffer, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Santa Paula.

Most of Saturday will be relatively dry before another storm system from western Canada moves into the area late in the day, Schaeffer said.

The steady rains Thursday prompted the Ventura County Flood Control District to issue a flood warning at the Ventura Beach RV Resort about 9 a.m., said Hassan Kasraie, a county hydrologist. A second advisory was issued at the Point Mugu Navy base, where agricultural land surrounding the nearby Calleguas Creek could be inundated by water, Kasraie said.

About 4 p.m. Thursday, the district also issued a flood warning for the Arundell Barranca at Channel Drive after flood control workers found the water cresting the barranca.

RV park manager Joe Crognale said that although flooding was not expected until late Thursday, if at all, the facility’s owners did not want to take any chances and asked him to evacuate the park Thursday morning. All 35 campers had pulled out of the park by 1 p.m. and were told that it may be as late as Monday before they could return, Crognale said.

Flooding from the Ventura River damaged or destroyed about 40 recreational vehicles at the park during February’s intense storms, a scenario that park officials didn’t want to see repeated, Crognale said.

“It’s not worth the chance to us to maybe have someone hurt,” he said.

The sole fatality from river flooding in February was a homeless man living in the nearby river bottom. But on Thursday that didn’t deter the homeless who live there.

Ray Mahala, 54, said about eight men and women remained in their tents late Thursday even as rainwater streamed through mud around them. The group decided to stay through the night while keeping a watch for flooding, he said.

“We’ll take turns all night long,” said Louie Duarte, 45.

Wet weather also didn’t deter Catherine Hoffman, 30, from jogging along the sidewalk next to the river.

“Isn’t this wonderful,” said the chemist, who is visiting from Los Gatos in Northern California. “It’s cooler. I mean, c’mon, we need some rain, don’t we?”

Rain-slick roads and intermittent downpours caused one major injury accident Thursday afternoon on the Ventura Freeway in Newbury Park and more than 50 fender-benders and minor injury accidents, the California Highway Patrol reported. However, no fatal traffic collisions were reported as of late Thursday, officials said.

In Simi Valley, a boy who decided to use his boogie board in a swollen wash was rescued by teen-agers after the waters threatened to sweep him away. And in Port Hueneme, the stormy weather caused a mother to worry about the safety of her 14-year-old son, who had gone surfing and didn’t return on time. A multi-agency search for the boy near the Port Hueneme Pier was called off after the youth was spotted resting on the beach.

County firefighters had received at least 150 calls about shallow flooding at residences by 6:30 p.m., said dispatcher Denis Miller. About 20 of the calls concerned water inside a home, Miller said, and firefighters were dispatched on those.

The department was making sandbags available to property owners for emergency situations only, he said. The Ventura Fire Department handed out about 1,000 sandbags Thursday, officials said.

The wet weather was quickly filling the county’s reservoirs, which have been depleted by years of drought. Lake Piru had filled by the rate of 1,000 acre-feet through Thursday, and that could grow to 3,000 acre-feet by today, said Fred Gientke, general manager of the United Water Conservation District.

In Oxnard, the Freeman Diversion Project was funneling rainwater into nearby spreading grounds at maximum capacity, Gientke said. The facility has been capturing 750 acre-feet of water daily for the past two days, he said. One acre-foot is enough water to supply two families of four for a year.

“We’re real happy with this storm,” Gientke said. “We’re going to get a lot of water from it.”

Farmers were not anticipating significant damage from the storm because it has been soaking the earth in waves, rather than coming in one deluge, said Rex Laird, director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. The biggest area of concern is the Oxnard Plain, which is relatively flat and prone to shallow flooding, he said.

“Some fields may suffer erosion there,” he said.

He said growers will be closely watching the forecast for this weekend, when as much as two more inches of rain is expected. Showers could become heavy again late Saturday night and Sunday, when the new front is expected to move in, meteorologist Schaeffer said.

The wet weather pattern could linger into next week, as more storms from the subtropic region and the north move into the area, he said.

“I just don’t see any end to this in sight right now.”

Times staff writers Peggy Y. Lee and Phil Sneiderman and correspondents Maia Davis and Patrick McCartney contributed to this story.

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics from 5 p.m. Tuesday until 9 p.m. Thursday 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 Tuesday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 2.36 7.63 4.99 Casitas Dam 3.39 12.64 8.30 El Rio 1.92 8.58 5.24 Fillmore 3.31 11.37 7.04 Moorpark 2.40 7.40 5.24 Ojai 3.19 13.34 7.30 Upper Ojai 4.26 13.02 7.77 Oxnard 2.17 7.36 5.01 Piru N.A. 8.38 5.94 Santa Paula 1.93 9.26 6.37 Simi Valley 1.77 7.56 4.99 Thousand Oaks 2.29 7.78 5.32 Ventura Govt. Center 2.40 8.81 5.56

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