Storm Bedevils Sea Rescue, Shuts Fillmore Roads : Weather: Strawberry growers say they need a week or so without rain. They fear damage from fungus or rot.

A chilly, windy Pacific storm swept across Ventura County on Tuesday, dropping nearly an inch of rain in most cities, temporarily closing some roads due to flooding and complicating a routine boat rescue near Santa Cruz Island.

The storm dropped 1.02 of an inch of rain in Thousand Oaks by early evening and nearly as much in other urban centers. Gray skies, occasional showers and highs in the upper 40s are expected to remain today, but the rain will taper off by this evening, said Terry Schaeffer, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Santa Paula.

Heavy showers heightened worries among strawberry growers that soggy soil will delay early harvests or damage the delicate fruit with fungus or rot. Production at Deardorff-Jackson Co., an Oxnard-based strawberry grower, is down by 30% because of the inclement weather, said manager Scott Deardorff.

“We need a week or two between these storms to dry things out,” Deardorff said. “The ground is so saturated that it is not soaking up water anymore, it is just pooling up.”

A new storm out of the Pacific Northwest is expected to arrive in the area by early Saturday, Schaeffer said. It will bring colder temperatures, snow at lower elevations and more substantial rain over Ventura County, he said.

But it could be the last wet weather to hit the area for awhile, Schaeffer said. “We could be seeing the beginning of the end,” he said.

Rough weather Tuesday was blamed for hindering Coast Guard efforts to rescue a fishing vessel stranded 27 miles off the Oxnard coast, near the west end of Santa Cruz Island, officials said.

Five rescuers aboard a 44-foot motorized lifeboat were battling swells up to 15 feet in 30 m.p.h. winds late Tuesday to tow the disabled vessel to safety, said Coast Guard Seaman Terri McEachern.

The rescue began at 8 a.m., but was slowed considerably by the rough weather, said Petty Officer Marc Engelbrecht of the Coast Guard’s Channel Islands Harbor office. Both vessels were expected to arrive in Channel Islands Harbor about 11 p.m., he said.

Tuesday’s rain also forced the temporary closure of some roads in the Fillmore area due to flooding, the California Highway Patrol reported. Authorities closed traffic on Torrey Road to all but local residents between Howe and Guiberson roads. Guiberson between California 23 and Chambersburg Road also was closed, officials said.

Meanwhile, agricultural officials said it is too early to say if the rains will bring significant damage to the county’s extensive strawberry crop, which doesn’t reach peak harvest until April and May. Sales of strawberries bring about $130 million annually to county farmers, topped only by lemons as the county’s biggest cash crop, officials said.

“If we get some clear weather in February, March and April, we will have a bumper crop,” Deardorff said.

Growers of cut flowers also were hoping for a break in the action to give workers time to cultivate the crop. John Engesser, who owns 17 acres of nursery stock in Oxnard, said the storms have given him little time to prepare flowers for the critical Valentine’s Day market.

“With the constant rain, you just can’t get in there to work,” he said. “People will work in the rain for so long, and then they will say ‘No, thank you.’ ”

Times correspondent Patrick McCartney contributed to this story.

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday 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 Sunday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.71 8.53 5.30 Casitas Dam 0.67 13.35 9.00 El Rio 0.55 9.32 5.69 Fillmore 0.94 12.32 7.55 Moorpark 0.63 8.12 5.68 Ojai 0.71 13.93 7.94 Upper Ojai 0.91 14.27 8.45 Oxnard 0.71 8.33 5.46 Piru 0.35 10.30 6.48 Santa Paula 0.83 10.83 6.86 Simi Valley 0.87 10.06 5.41 Thousand Oaks 1.02 9.50 5.79 Ventura Govt. Center 0.63 9.45 6.05