Forecast Includes Scattered Rain : Weather: Thursday’s storm brings one to two inches of precipitation to the county, but no massive mudslides occur in fire-ravaged areas.

Scattered showers through early Saturday will give way to partly cloudy skies and warming temperatures over the Presidents’ Day weekend, forecasters said.

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Between one and two inches of rain fell countywide from the latest storm front, but homeowners in east Ventura County were spared the massive mudslides that emergency officials worried would strike fire-ravaged hillsides.

“We’ve been real fortunate it just hasn’t come down on us,” said Josie Conlon, a Thousand Oaks woman whose Spring Canyon Place home came within yards of burning during last fall’s Green Meadow fire.

Local flood control and public works officials said Thursday’s rain fell gently and caused little damage to property in Ventura County. But they warned that erosion could become more serious as the ground is saturated.

“The more cumulative rains we get, the more sensitive the erosion problems become,” said Dolores Taylor, division engineer with the Ventura County Flood Control District.

Officials at the U. S. Soil Conservation Service were also keeping a close watch on the blackened hills around the county. Many were seeded last month with fast-growing ground covers, which are helping prevent mudslides.

“The water was running clear off the hills; we saw very little debris and the growth is coming through,” said Peggy Rose, a Soil Conservation Service civil engineer who toured the Green Meadow area Thursday.

“It’s a little bit luck and a little bit good planning,” Rose said.

Although there could be a little more rain this weekend, it was not expected to be enough to cause problems.

“There might be another chance at scattered showers late Sunday,” said Bruce Thoren of WeatherData Inc., which forecasts for The Times. “Monday and Tuesday so far look dry, but it may get a little breezy.”

Thoren predicted temperatures in the high 60s or low 70s for most of the weekend, with the thermometer dipping to the low 40s overnight. Gusts of 15 to 25 m.p.h. were predicted.

Despite the mild forecast for the weekend, flood control district officials are continuing to monitor several mudslide-vulnerable spots throughout the county. Taylor said workers have not finished building emergency basins to prevent mudslide damage at fire sites.

“The good news is that it’s been several months, and the native stuff is starting to grow back,” Taylor said. “But we are concerned.”

Lanny Kaufer, a spokesman at the Wheeler Hot Springs resort near Ojai, where hundreds of acres burned in the Matilija fire in November, said damage from mudslides so far was minimal.

“We had quite a bit of mud and shale come down on the south end of the property, but fortunately it’s in an area we don’t use,” he said. “As long as we can keep those drainage channels open, we’ll be fine.”

Residents in the Malibu area of Los Angeles County, hard hit last week during another storm, were better prepared for sliding mud Thursday.

“We’ll stop it this time,” said Barry McManus, who owns a four-unit apartment building in Malibu that was damaged from mudslides Feb. 7.

“We’re doing more sandbagging, and we’re going to keep the flow moving with a fire hose,” said McManus, who used a plastic trash bag for a raincoat.

A couple of houses away, Randy Brant, 42, explained that he had left the doors of his garage open this time so that any mud seeping in one end could seep out the other.

“If I’d done that last time, everything would have been OK,” said Brant, who lost a car, washing machine and set of golf clubs to mudslides during last week’s storm.

Even with the recent rainfall, Ventura County still lags well behind precipitation totals for a typical year, according to figures compiled by the Flood Control District.

Each of the 19 rain gauges around the county indicates below-average precipitation to date, with Piru and Fillmore recording the lowest amount--50% of normal--and Saticoy receiving the highest amount at 76%, the district reported.

The precipitation early Thursday had varied impact on farmers, according to Rex Laird of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

“The citrus and avocado ranchers are thrilled, the vegetable guys probably see it as a nuisance, and the strawberry growers are likely to have had the worst of it,” he said.

“The rain fell hard enough to cause physical damage to the strawberries,” Laird said. “They’ll have to go in there and strip the fruit from the plants.”

The rains also took a toll on Ventura County drivers. Streets in downtown Oxnard and Creek Road in Ojai flooded as rainwater overwhelmed drainage systems.

More than three dozen crashes--none serious--were reported to the California Highway Patrol between 6 a.m. and noon Thursday, Officer Jerry Sawasaki said.

“If you don’t absolutely have to drive in the hard rain, then don’t do it,” he said.

Motorists in Los Angeles County were not so fortunate, however.

Officials said an unidentified man was killed when his car spun out of control along Topanga Canyon Boulevard and crashed into a passing car.

On nearby Malibu Canyon Road, a stove-sized boulder loosened by rain plummeted onto the top of a compact car driven by Michelle Faircloth, a 21-year-old Pepperdine University employee. She suffered a fractured collarbone.

Ventura County business and hospitality industry leaders are counting on warmer weather to draw visitors over the three-day holiday weekend.

“If the weather will hold, we’ll get people up from the L. A. area,” said Russ Smith, executive director of the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau.

“Our hotels are quite busy; convention business in town is good and there are a couple of movie shoots going on,” Smith said. “So far, it’s been quite good, but this is all weather-dependent.”

Times staff writer Eric Malnic and correspondents Kathleen Kelleher and Brenda Day contributed to this story.

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control District for the 24-hour period ending at 5 p.m. Thursday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 1.38 5.35 8.68 Casitas Dam 1.54 9.77 15.27 El Rio 1.50 6.99 9.76 Fillmore 1.28 6.22 12.36 Moorpark 1.44 5.43 9.44 Ojai 1.31 7.42 13.75 Upper Ojai 1.42 9.03 14.87 Oxnard 1.45 5.85 9.41 Piru 1.04 5.56 11.05 Santa Paula 1.17 6.63 11.53 Simi Valley 0.86 5.26 9.84 Thousand Oaks 0.99 5.52 9.10 Ventura Govt. Center 1.39 5.86 10.15