After Short Break, New Storms Bear Down on County : Weather: Gray skies are expected through Thursday. Heavy showers could trigger mudslides, renewed flooding.

Ventura County residents hunkered down Monday for a new round of powerful Pacific storms, which left an inch of rain on the coast by nightfall and up to three inches in the mountains.

Gray, sodden skies are expected to last at least through Thursday, dumping up to two more inches of rain on Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Ventura and Oxnard. Those totals may climb higher in the mountains north of Ojai, said Clay Morgan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“Don’t forget the umbrella, the raincoat, the gloves, the whole shebang,” Morgan said. “You’re going to need them.”

The light but steady rainfall caused minor street flooding in Ventura, El Rio and Oxnard and triggered renewed leaking at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, officials said. But there were no reports of serious injury or property damage by late Monday.

A flash-flood warning and an urban and small-stream advisory have been issued for all of Ventura County and should remain in effect until late today, National Weather Service forecasters said. These notices warn that flooding could occur at any time, especially in the mountains and near the foothills.

Last week’s break between storms helped dry out soggy celery fields and gave flood-control workers time to clear clogged storm drains, officials said. But the ground is nearly saturated from the more than 14 inches of rain that have fallen in Ventura County since Jan. 3, said Dolores Taylor, a senior engineer in the county’s Flood Control Department.

And meteorologists were predicting periods of heavy rainfall for Monday night and early this morning, she said. If the downpours last for an extended time, they may trigger mudslides in the burn areas near Newbury Park, Ojai and Point Mugu and renewed flooding along the Ventura River bottom, she said.

The Red Cross opened a second emergency warming shelter at the First Baptist Church in Oxnard because of overcrowding at the shelter in the Oxnard armory.

Ventura police and city officials are not allowing homeless men and women to return to makeshift homes in the Ventura River bottom. At least a dozen river-bottom dwellers had to be rescued Jan. 10, and one man died when the river surged toward the ocean.

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Hydrologists were expected to closely monitor the precipitation throughout the night Monday from a storm watch center in the Ventura County Government Center.

“One of us is probably going to have to stay tonight,” Taylor said Monday afternoon. “So I’m having a cup of coffee right now.”

Neither the Santa Clara River nor Calleguas Creek near Camarillo are in any immediate danger of jumping their banks, said hydrologist John Weikel. And flooding along the Arroyo Conejo in Thousand Oaks is not likely because the storm seemed to be dumping its heaviest showers over the northern and western regions of Ventura County, he said.

But the east county did not escape unscathed Monday.

While last week’s brief dry spell allowed workers at the Civic Arts Plaza to make some minor repairs to leaky windows, corners and crevices, the source of the biggest leak has yet to be fixed.

Ed Johnduff, who supervises the building for the city, said a leak along a seismic joint has slowed to an occasional drip but is still dampening floors and carpets below it.

“The big leaks will have to wait for dry weather,” Johnduff said. “We’ll get it all worked out as soon as it quits raining.”

Rex Laird, director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, hopes that’s soon.

Flooding in the Oxnard Plain in the past three weeks has caused an estimated $22.7 million in damage to crops. And the constant onslaught of new storms has made it difficult to harvest the vegetables that have not been damaged, Laird said.

“With this new storm, the harvest is being delayed that much longer,” he said.

The inability to harvest or to plant new crops probably will result in a temporary shortage of some produce in about three months, Laird and other farmers said. There may be a period of two weeks or longer in April when celery, lettuce or strawberries will be in short supply, he said.

High surf has returned with Monday’s storm, with breakers reaching 10 feet on west-facing beaches, the weather service’s Morgan said. Surf will continue to remain high through Friday, he said.

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No new damage was reported at the Port Hueneme Pier, and workers were busy Monday replacing pilings knocked out beneath the Ventura Pier, said John Betonte, the city’s maintenance services manager.

Betonte said he stopped by early Monday to briefly observe the work and then rushed back to his warm, dry office in Ventura’s City Hall.

“Today I was lucky,” he said. “I didn’t have to stay outside.”

Meanwhile, a search for a surfer who was reported trapped in high surf south of the Ventura Pier on Sunday evening was not renewed Monday because officials believe the person managed to get back to shore without help.

“We weren’t even sure if there was a surfer in distress in the first place,” Ventura Firefighter Damian Schmidt said. “But we couldn’t just ignore the report.”

Times staff writer Mary F. Pols and correspondent Paul Elias contributed to this report.

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County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending 6 p.m. Monday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo .16 13.32 6.53 Casitas Dam 1.77 25.46 11.05 El Rio .47 16.36 7.06 Fillmore 1.02 17.91 9.09 Moorpark .31 14.04 7.00 Ojai 1.06 21.77 9.84 Upper Ojai 2.32 28.03 10.52 Oxnard .87 16.00 6.78 Piru .51 17.11 8.08 Santa Paula .12 18.27 8.34 Simi Valley .24 13.90 6.69 Thousand Oaks .35 15.11 7.18 Ventura Govt. Center .87 17.73 7.51