Rain Causes Traffic Headaches, Renews Landslide Fears

Heavy rains slammed into Ventura County Wednesday, pushing water through the streets and forcing cars to slide wildly across roads and freeways.

The Pacific squall splashed as much as 3 inches of water onto the mountains to the north and more than an inch over the southern, populated regions of Ventura County, nearly doubling seasonal rain totals in some areas.

Drizzles left over from the offshore system are expected to die out by noon today. Forecasters predicted clearing skies this afternoon and high temperatures in the mid-50s to low 60s through the rest of this week.

“This one came from right off the Pacific Ocean,” said Mike Wofford, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Oxnard. “But it isn’t a particularly cold storm.

“That’s why we’re not seeing any snow in our local mountains.”

California Highway Patrol officials reported dozens of traffic collisions by late Wednesday, including five accidents on one stretch of the Simi Valley Freeway during the morning commute.

“We’ve got lots of crashes, but none of them have been serious,” CHP Officer David Cockrill said. “So far, they’re all just fender-benders.”

Ventura County Fire Department crews responded about noon to a call from Oak View about a slipping hillside on North Ventura Avenue.

An emergency team watched the slope for most of the afternoon, advising 15 residents that they may need to evacuate. The hillside overlooks a small enclave of five homes.

“It’s an old slide that’s left over from last year,” dispatcher Tracy Valencia said. “It appears to be just a surface slide at this time, but we’re going to have to monitor it until we make sure there’s no potential hazard.”

Officials estimated that the slide moved 5 to 10 feet during the day.

Sheet-metal worker Gilbert Esquivel said he has been trying to sell the property since an initial slide last March. But the constant threat looming above his hillside home has scared away buyers.

Esquivel’s wife, Sandra, said she would take her two children and spend the night elsewhere.

“I worry because my kids’ bedrooms are right down there,” she said, pointing from the hillside down to her home. “Me, I’ll probably be up all night, driving by all night long to check on it.”

Meanwhile, a threat-assessment team continued to monitor the beachfront community of La Conchita, where tons of earth and mud collapsed onto nine homes during fierce rains last March.

Dozens of other houses are threatened by the gaping hillside, which some geologists have said could tumble down if heavy rains persist.

But Sheriff’s Lt. Haskell Chandler said the hillside, which still hangs precariously above the community, has been holding firm through the latest storm.

“We did a visual inspection [Wednesday] morning, and at this point there has been no soil erosion or surface runoff,” Chandler said. “If we find that it’s necessary to do additional response, then we will do that.”

Tons of sand and thousands of sandbags stand ready to be filled and packed against the doors and driveways of La Conchita homes. Some residents have not waited, stacking dozens of heavy sandbags against their walls.

“We’re just kind of waiting it out right now,” longtime La Conchita resident Jean Kosztics said.

County flood-control officials said that clearing out the flood channels and debris basins throughout the summer and fall paid off. The rain Wednesday caused no severe flooding, said county hydrologist John Weikel.

“It shouldn’t cause any major flood problems in the natural channels, but there could be a lot of street flooding in some of the paved areas,” he said. “We don’t anticipate any major runoff.”

Most of the roads around Ventura County remained clear throughout the day Wednesday, except for small boulders pushed across some rural routes and minor flooding from rain that dampened the highways and made driving hazardous.

CHP Officer Cockrill urged people to stay put if they could and warned drivers to take special care if they had to travel.

“Slow down,” said Cockrill, who reported more than 40 crashes on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of water coming down, and it takes a long time to drain off the roads.

“People are hydroplaning all over the place.”

The rain also knocked out power in some parts of the county, including South Mountain between Santa Paula and Fillmore where KADY-TV operates its television transmitter. Thousands of television viewers lost reception of KADY and several other channels.

Just before the station’s 6 p.m. newscast, KADY workers were trying to jump-start their power with a generator.

“I don’t blame [KADY] for being upset, but we are getting a crew up there as soon as possible,” Southern California Edison spokesman Greg Smith said.

In Oxnard, 217 customers lost power for several hours Wednesday afternoon.

County Rainfall

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

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 1.02 4.07 7.30 Casitas Dam 2.44 6.86 12.48 Casitas Rec. Center 2.68 6.35 12.34 Fillmore 1.42 4.33 10.12 Matilija Dam 3.07 6.91 13.91 Moorpark 1.26 4.74 7.88 Upper Ojai 3.23 5.30 11.90 Oxnard 0.71 3.63 7.67 Piru 0.94 3.93 9.15 Port Hueneme 1.14 3.25 07.55 Santa Paula 2.28 4.86 9.32 Simi Valley 1.34 4.19 7.54 Thousand Oaks 1.34 4.96 8.11 Ventura Govt. Center 1.42 5.09 8.49

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