Quick-Moving Storm Causes No Damage

A quick-moving storm that dropped nearly three-quarters of an inch of rain in parts of Ventura County caused no damage to areas recently ravaged by earthquakes and fires, officials said Tuesday.

The rain, which began about 6 p.m. Monday and moved out about four hours later, never became intense and was quickly absorbed by barren earth scorched by wildfires last fall, said Dolores Taylor, division engineer in the county’s Flood Control Department.

The hills above Newbury Park and Santa Paula, scenes of the greatest devastation from wildfires in Ventura County, received about half an inch of rain. Mountain areas received up to 0.69 of an inch.

“It was a healthy rain,” Taylor said. “It should water the grass seeds that the Soil Conservation Corps worked so hard to spread around the fire areas.”

In Fillmore, where residents have been struggling to bring order to lives disrupted by the 6.6 magnitude Northridge earthquake, the storm caused little damage.

Fire Chief Patrick Askren said the biggest problem caused by the rain was a brief outage that affected 1,000 residents on the east side of town. A transformer that may have been weakened by the Jan. 17 earthquake blew out during the storm, he said.

The transformer was quickly repaired by Southern California Edison workers, he said.

Tuesday’s blustery, cool weather will give way to sunny skies and warmer temperatures today, said Dennis Tussey, a technician with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Highs could reach into the low 60s. There is a 50% chance of more showers Thursday morning from another storm system that is moving toward the coast, Tussey said.

The extended forecast calls for clearing skies and warmer temperatures, he said.

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control District for the 24-hour period ending 8 a.m. Tuesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo .52 2.53 6.72 Casitas Dam .69 4.15 11.43 El Rio .43 3.05 7.29 Fillmore .49 2.98 9.35 Moorpark .40 2.50 7.22 Ojai .63 3.40 10.16 Upper Ojai .66 4.12 10.87 Oxnard .39 2.07 7.01 Piru .34 2.73 8.35 Santa Paula .58 3.31 8.58 Simi Valley .41 2.84 6.90 Thousand Oaks .45 3.00 7.41 Ventura Govt. Center .37 2.92 7.76