New Weather Service Technology May Reduce Toll of Floods in County

Never mind that Wednesday marked the first day of fire season, not flood season.

Nearly 100 meteorologists, flood experts and others gathered in Ventura for a three-day conference on how to prepare for the rainy days ahead.

National Weather Service officials shared details about new satellites and radar systems that allow them to more accurately forecast the direction and intensity of approaching storms. Not to mention boost their credibility with the public.

“We used just to be able to say, ‘We think it is going to rain,’ ” said Edward Johnson, chief of the service’s hydrologic operations division. “Now we are getting much more reliable. Now we say, ‘There is going to be an inch of rain.’ ”

Besides helping residents decide whether to take an umbrella to work, that type of precision can help Ventura County’s flood-control officials figure out how to best respond to a storm. As the county’s senior hydrologist, Dolores Taylor is one of three officials charged with monitoring weather information and water levels in streams during storms.

Based on that information, Taylor must decide whether to alert public-safety officials of the need to put up sandbags or evacuate residents.

“If there is no problem, you leave the sheriff at home,” Taylor said. She added that the weather service’s modernization program, which calls for installing 163 Doppler radar systems across the nation--one already sits on Sulphur Mountain in Ojai--will make her job easier.

Along with information from satellites stationed 24,000 miles above each coast, the radar provides the weather service with earlier warnings of major storms. And weather officials can more accurately estimate rainfall amounts to forecast floods.

“It gives us a much better look at storms,” Taylor said. “It’s like giving you an encyclopedia when all you have is a dictionary. You go from one to 26 volumes.”

Floods have claimed lives and caused millions of dollars in damage in Ventura County in recent years. Statewide, floods in the winter of 1995 caused 27 deaths and created about $3 billion in property damage and other losses.

Ventura County is a particularly flood-prone area, National Weather Service officials say, because steep mountains lead rainfall to run swiftly into rivers and streams. It is one of many areas across the nation that use ALERT, a system of computers, weather forecasting and communications equipment to warn communities about flood danger.

“Ventura County has been an absolute leader in the use of this ALERT technology,” Johnson said.

As an example of the technology, Taylor said, about 20 streams in the area are equipped with sensors that provide the county with nearly instantaneous updates of water levels.

Louis Boezi, the weather service’s deputy assistant administrator, said the agency’s modernization program will cost about $4 billion. However, a national study showed that the program will save about $2 billion annually by limiting deaths, property loss and destruction of agriculture caused by floods, he said.

Boezi, who has not yet taken time out of his schedule to see “Twister,” the movie about a killer tornado, is nevertheless glad to know that Hollywood is recognizing the awesome power of nature.

“When you happen to see a feature come along, that is great,” Boezi said. “I haven’t seen it, but the awareness is good.”