Heavy Rain Causes Flooding, Accidents : Weather: Crops are destroyed on the Oxnard Plain and part of Port Hueneme’s pier is washed away.

Driving rain from a powerful Alaskan storm drenched parts of Ventura County with more than three inches of rain Wednesday, washing away a portion of the Port Hueneme Fishing Pier, destroying crops on the Oxnard Plain, flooding homes, roads and businesses and triggering numerous traffic accidents.

Heavy rainfall prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flash-flood warning and an urban and small stream advisory for all of Ventura County.

The advisories, which warn that flooding near foothills, streams and urban channels canoccur at any time, were expected to remain in effect until midnight Wednesday, forecasters said.

Rainfall was heaviest on the Oxnard Plain, which received nearly four inches from the time the storm began about 4 a.m. until it tapered off at nightfall. Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley each picked up about 2 1/2 inches of rain.

The mountains above Ojai received two feet of snow by late Wednesday, closing many roads into the remote backcountry area, officials said.

Skies will begin clearing this morning and will remain partly cloudy until late Friday, when another storm will approach Ventura County’s coast, said Robert Baruffaldi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“Don’t put the umbrella away yet,” he said.

High winds and waves of up to seven feet battered Port Hueneme’s 1,300-foot-long pier, washing away about 200 feet at the pier’s end late Wednesday afternoon and leaving another 200-foot section seriously damaged, said Douglas Breeze, Port Hueneme’s public works chief.

At least 20 pilings washed ashore, and Breeze said he suspected that more had been ripped off during the deluge and more would be lost if the stormy weather continues. Officials could not say how much repairs would cost on the pier, which was renovated seven years ago.

The segment that washed away Wednesday was part of a T-shaped section added during the renovation, officials said.

“This is a devastating experience for the city,” Breeze said. “We have no idea where we are going to get the money to fix things.”

At the Ventura Pier, which has suffered heavy damage from recent storms and high surf, workers on Wednesday began replacing eight of the 14 pilings that were lost. No new damage was reported by Wednesday afternoon, Ventura officials said.

No serious injuries were reported as a result of the weather, but the California Highway Patrol said it responded to at least a dozen minor-injury traffic accidents. The Red Cross provided shelter for two families who evacuated their houses on Raytheon Road near Point Mugu because of flooding.

One of the houses was inundated with three feet of water, said Michael Goth, a spokesman for the Red Cross. The families will be housed by the Red Cross until they can re-enter their homes, Goth said. The County Fire Department reported more than 50 houses flooded countywide.

Rescue crews in helicopters scoured the Ventura and Santa Clara river bottoms, but did not find any signs of trouble, officials said.

But homeless people who live in Ventura’s river bottom said Wednesday was one of the wettest and most miserable days of the winter so far. Some said they were leaving the river banks for the cover of the National Guard Armory’s shelter in Oxnard.

“I hate this the most,” Leonard Biga said of the rain. “Days like this, it’s tough.”

Ventura County fire dispatchers said the heavy rains caused considerable street flooding and numerous road closures countywide. By nightfall, however, rising waters had largely subsided, officials said.

California 33 at Maricopa Highway was closed due to flooding, with no report on when it might reopen. No other major thoroughfares were closed, the CHP said.

Tracy Valencia, a dispatcher for the Ventura County Fire Department, said she took about 25 reports of minor flooding throughout the day. Most of those calling were residents or business owners asking for sand bags or for help building berms to keep out rising water, Valencia said.

The heaviest flooding came on the low-lying Oxnard Plain, where hundreds of acres of agricultural fields were inundated. Dean Walsh said he lost $1.5 million in crops when water covered 60 acres of red-leaf, green-leaf and romaine lettuces on his organic farm near Central Avenue and the Ventura Freeway.

“This is the third time I’ve lost crops to flooding,” Walsh said. “It never gets any easier.”

Strawberry farmers may also see some losses from fruit bruised by the battering rain, said Rex Laird, director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. Growers will have to strip away the damaged fruit before they can harvest, Laird said.

In Port Hueneme, custodians at Bard Elementary School built dirt berms and channels to divert water that was seeping into at least six classrooms there, said Lupe Chavez, an office manager. Children were not in the rooms when the flooding occurred, she said.

Oxnard fire crews were called to the Oxnard Airport to vacuum water out of a hangar close to the airport’s tower, a city dispatcher said. About three inches of water had accumulated before fire personnel arrived, the dispatcher said.

In Nyeland Acres, an unincorporated area near Oxnard, some residents placed sandbags around the perimeters of their yards to hold back water that started rising early Wednesday afternoon. Authorities sealed off a three-mile section of Santa Clara Avenue between Central and Los Angeles avenues after the thoroughfare became flooded.

Fire crews in Simi Valley helped the owner of the Soccer Connection build berms to divert water that was seeping inside the sports equipment shop on Los Angeles Avenue. Water entered the store underneath a door, said clerk Heather Heit.

“We’re still open, but it’s kind of crazy,” Heit said. “Our carpets are kind of dirty now.”

The intensity of Wednesday’s storm took some forecasters by surprise. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service on Tuesday had predicted lower rainfall amounts and called for partial clearing Wednesday afternoon.

“The storm front moved in a lot faster and stayed a lot longer than we thought it would,” meteorologist Michael Most said.

After skies clear this morning, no further rain is expected until Saturday, when another cold front out of the Gulf of Alaska may arrive, Most said. The door for storm systems will remain open until a high-pressure ridge builds over Southern California, he said.

“There’s really no end in sight to this unsettled pattern,” he said. “It looks like it’s going to stick with us into next week at least.”

The storm pushed rainfall totals above normal for this time of year in many parts of the county. The County Government Center received nearly seven inches of rain by Wednesday night, far above the five inches normally received by this time.

For some people, Wednesday’s driving rain was more of an inconvenience than a major problem.

For 22-year-old Chris Elizondo, the rain meant he would arrive late for work. The Canoga Park electrician lost control of his vehicle and slid into an irrigation ditch on Los Posas Road, just north of the Pacific Coast Highway, about 9:30 a.m.

Elizondo said he was on his way to Mugu Rock, where a video production crew was scheduled to shoot a music video featuring an alternative-rock band called Veruca Salt. Elizondo said he planned to continue on to work after a tow truck pulled his four-wheel-drive truck from the mushy channel.

“I’ll just have to explain why I’m tardy,” he said, grinning.

Despite the driving rain and wind gusts up to 40 m.p.h., the Los Angeles-based Propaganda Productions crew stood huddled under a lifeguard tower and continued rolling tape of the stormy seas.

“We wanted it to be gloomy,” said assistant direct Jonathan Faber. “But not this gloomy.”

Times staff writer Christina Lima and correspondents Paul Elias, J.E. Mitchell and Ira E. Stoll contributed to this report.

* SOUTHLAND

Storm brings flooding, power outages, snarls traffic. A1

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Area Firms Carry Sand, Sandbags

The following companies carry sand and sandbags, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. Residents, however, should first call to make sure the businesses have not exhausted their supplies.

* United Building Materials: 1212 Flynn Road, Camarillo, 484-4391.

* Home Depot: 500 N. Ventu Park Road, Newbury Park, 498-2278

* Newbury Supply Co.: 889 Mitchell Road, Newbury Park, 498-9684.

* Lumber City: 2695 Cochran St., Simi Valley, 522-0533.

* Simi Pacific Builders: 609 E. Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley, 526-0381.

* Truestone Block: 4575 Vineyard Ave., Oxnard, 485-1137.

* Newton Building Materials: 11220 Azahar St., Saticoy, 647-3231.

* Carlson’s Building Materials: 1538 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, 495-3711.