Haphazard Storm System Leaves Its Mark on County

The second in a pair of storms that soaked Ventura County this week came and went with a flurry Wednesday, as an Alaskan cold front collided with the tropical system that had hung for days over much of Southern California.

A morning-long drought ended by late afternoon, with pockets of heavy rain spread unevenly across the county, dropping up to 1 inch in the mountains and half an inch or more inland and along the coast.

But unlike the relative chaos earlier this week, there was minimal flooding and no reports of mudslides Wednesday, emergency officials said. Weather-related car crashes numbered fewer than 10, according to the California Highway Patrol--far below the 50 or more reported Tuesday.

“It’s not a big, steady rain system like we had earlier this week,” said Joe Dandrea, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “This is a showery, haphazard system.”

With the worst of the rainfall already passed, forecasters called for clearing skies by this afternoon. Daytime high temperatures could climb into the low 60s today, with a slim chance of sunshine late in the day.

“In terms of the widespread heavy rainfall, the worst is over,” Dandrea said.

For the first time this year, rain totals for the season approached normal rainfall.

In La Conchita, an unstable hillside showed little movement. Recommendations from Sheriff’s Department crews to evacuate a cluster of homes nestled against the hillside proved unnecessary by Wednesday night.

At a Ventura River recreational vehicle park, property owners cleaned up their RV spaces and planned to reopen today after voluntarily shutting down for the past two days.

The recent showers added millions of gallons to local water supplies, helping to fill local reservoirs and aquifers, and ensuring deep-water sources through the summer.

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“We’re approximately 5 feet from the spill elevation at Casitas Dam,” said Steven Wickstrum, a civil engineer with the Casitas Municipal Water District in Oak View.

“We’ve added about 1,800 acre-feet over the past day or so,” he said, adding that the reservoir now contains more than 242,000 acre-feet of water, which is closing in on its capacity.

District officials have been monitoring their equipment, making sure that slides have not damaged underground water mains. They plan to continue inspections long after the rain stops, Wickstrum said.

“We’re getting toward that saturation stage and we’re keeping our eye out,” he said. “You never know where or when a landslide will occur.”

Fred Gientke, general manager of the United Water Conservation District, said Lake Piru is up to 55,000 acre-feet, about two-thirds of its capacity.

“We’ll still be about 32 feet below the crest of the spillway,” he said. “But it’s certainly a welcome amount.”

Matilija Dam near Ojai crested late Tuesday, and county flood control officials said Wednesday that any threat of flooding in the Ventura River watershed had petered out.

Water flows in the river were expected to reach no more than 10,000 cubic feet per second by late Wednesday, far below the 30,000 cubic feet per second needed to flood the Ventura Freeway.

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Dolores Taylor, a Ventura County hydrologist, said flood-control crews worked through Wednesday to clear runoff channels and prepare for the last of the rainfall that hit late in the day.

“There’s a lot of maintenance work that’s done as an ongoing process after the rains,” she said. “But this has been just the right size storm, so it didn’t cause a lot of hassle.”

The persistent rains were a big hassle for many residents of the beachfront La Conchita community, where thousands of gallons of mud and dirt have slipped across Fillmore Avenue and other streets throughout the week.

For the past two nights, residents of about 20 homes were advised to voluntarily evacuate because of fears by emergency crews that debris could tumble into some homes closest to the hillside.

Sheriff’s deputies are continuing to patrol the community 24 hours a day.

“After aerial reconnaissance this [Wednesday] morning and a foot inspection by our geologist, we have no reason to believe that the mountain is in danger of moving,” said Lt. Hank Chandler, who has been watching the slide for months.

The more runoff the better, Chandler said, because that means less water is soaking into the ground. It is the heavy, water-laden earth that causes the ground to shift.

Runoff “is not a blessing per se, but it is the lesser of some of the other choices,” he said. “Anything is possible, but the probability is that we’ll be looking only at additional mud and debris flow.”

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Fillmore Avenue homeowner Michael Scheck agreed. He plans to stick it out in his home, which is about five houses away from the slide area.

“It’s a mess outside, but it will be cleaned up,” said Scheck, who has lived in La Conchita for eight years. “It always is.

“We expected what’s happening now, and they told us to be prepared,” said Scheck, a retired hair stylist. “It gets bad, but even before the landslide, we would get mud down Fillmore Avenue.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

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

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Rainfall Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last since since to date 24 hours Monday since to date Camarillo 0.91 3.54 7.85 9.00 Casitas Dam 0.35 5.51 14.45 15.93 Casitas Rec. Center 0.43 6.38 13.19 16.02 Fillmore 1.18 4.49 11.59 12.89 Matilija Dam 0.71 7.13 16.78 18.23 Moorpark 0.59 4.25 9.14 9.81 Upper Ojai 0.83 7.20 12.26 15.57 Oxnard 0.51 3.11 8.65 9.82 Piru 0.75 4.45 9.00 11.50 Port 0.47 2.76 6.93 9.63 Hueneme Santa Paula 0.67 6.38 10.36 12.05 Simi Valley 0.35 2.56 9.04 9.48 Thousand Oaks 0.91 3.70 9.30 10.25 Ventura 0.91 4.88 10.24 10.85 Govt. Center

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