Rains Raise Fears of Flooding

Ventura County has received more than double the normal rainfall so far this year, delighting citrus farmers by deeply irrigating their trees, but worrying flood-control officials about houses tucked in low-lying areas and beneath sopping hillsides.

A series of cold fronts mixing with tropical moisture has saturated the ground with rain, beginning to replenish the county’s reservoirs but also threatening more homes with flood waters and mudslides.

This week’s drenching flooded a small collection of homes and garages in the tiny community of El Rio, where storm runoff backed up in a half-completed drainage pipe.

And in the beach-side community of La Conchita, one household reported some oozing surface mud, but county engineers and geologists found no evidence of slippage where the steep hill unleashed a massive mudslide in 1995 and smaller slides in earlier years.

“Every time it rains around here we get mud off of the surface and that is going to continue,” said Dale Carnathan, an administrator of the county Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services. “The slides have been evaluated and we don’t see any evidence that they are moving.”

Still, county senior hydrologist Dolores Taylor said the ground is becoming sufficiently saturated that it poses a greater risk should the county get hit with more rain.

“Any time we get between 10 and 14 inches of rain, that’s when we see land sliding in parts of the county,” she said. Taylor was particularly concerned about the hillsides west of Fillmore that were ravaged by the Grand fire last spring. That area has collected more than a dozen inches of rain this fall.

“There are a number of homes there that are in a vulnerable position,” she said. “Those areas are very steep and totally denuded now.”

The brunt of this week’s storm has passed, according to the National Weather Service. Meteorologist Dedric Walker forecast a few lingering showers and cloud cover for today with the storm system clearing by tonight. But more rain could come as soon as Monday.

What spells trouble for some perilously situated homes is a godsend for citrus and avocado farmers, who spend a small fortune pumping mineral-laden ground water to irrigate their trees.

Heavy rains soak deep into their orchards, flushing the built-up salts and other minerals in the soil that eventually can weaken healthy fruit trees.

“This rain couldn’t be better or come in better amounts,” said lemon and avocado rancher Bob Pinkerton, a director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “It is rejuvenating. This is going to make a great Christmas.”

With the Ventura and Santa Clara rivers flowing, local water agencies have begun to recharge their reserves.

The Casitas Municipal Water District just started diverting water into Lake Casitas, the county’s largest reservoir. The lake has risen about a foot so far, but still has another 10 feet to go before it begins to spill water.

“We are always happy to get rain and fill up the reservoir,” general manager John Johnson said. “We just started diverting water. If it continues to rain, we will be able to divert quite a bit.”

Wednesday’s showers continued to bring troubles for commuters, contributing to dozens of accidents.

As smashed cars littered the slick roadways, the California Highway Patrol urged motorists to use caution in what could be another wet commute this morning.

“Slow down,” said CHP Officer Steve Reid. “If it takes 30 minutes to get to work, give yourself an extra 15 minutes. Don’t hurry.”

Rescue workers continued to search the mountains northwest of Ojai for John Duke Allen, a 52-year-old hiker from Santa Barbara who has been missing since Sunday.

Three dozen rescue workers on horseback, motorcycles and foot slogged up muddy hiking and fire trails, but storm clouds and rain forced helicopters to remain grounded most of the day.

“The weather is not cooperating,” said Deputy Dan Shea, a pilot with Ventura County Sheriff’s Aviation Unit. “We have three helicopters ready to go if the weather ever does lift.”

The county’s only flooding came in about a dozen homes and garages in El Rio, a low-lying community located between Oxnard and Ventura.

The hamlet, named El Rio because it was built alongside the Santa Clara River, has suffered the most frequent flooding in the county.

Trying to solve the problem, the county began installing an 8-foot-diameter underground drainage pipe to sweep runoff from the neighborhood and surrounding strawberry fields. But the job is only half done.

Residents complained that the half-completed pipe exacerbated the usual flooding problem by collecting water and leaving it nowhere to go.

“We know this used to be river bottom and we understand that,” said Dave Gomez, a longtime El Rio resident sweeping mud and water from his garage. “If this flooding was God-made, we would live with that. But this flooding was man-made.”

County flood-control workers rolled in three big, gas-powered pumps to drain the thigh-high water from the neighborhood. And after a meeting with residents and County Supervisor John Flynn, flood-control crews dug a makeshift ditch so they could unplug the drainage pipe and allow it to flow into a field downhill from the neighborhood.

Supervisor John Flynn said he raised hell with county flood-control managers for the mishap. “I’m really quite critical of them,” he said. “They did not have a plan and they were sitting on their rear ends.”

Public Works Director Art Goulet said he appreciates Flynn’s desire to serve his constituents.

“We thought we had a plan, and unfortunately it turned out to be insufficient,” Goulet said. “Some people suffered some flooding and that was unfortunate. As a result of the meeting today, we put a better plan into place and it is well on its way to fruition.”

In La Conchita, Don Ski and his wife, Roberta, spent Tuesday night in a motel after noticing mud beginning to creep down the hillside behind their house on Vista Del Rincon Drive.

Ski dug a series of shallow ditches to divert the flow of mud from the house to an adjacent concrete-drainage ditch, installed by his mother, who owns the house.

“The mud wanted to come down, so I gave it a place to go,” Ski said.

His handiwork was criticized by county officials, who have been keeping watch for another massive slide like the one that creamed several houses in 1995. Ski’s house is located about a block east of that big slide, at a place where a smaller chunk of the hill sloughed off in 1991.

“He may have had good intentions, but he didn’t help his situation,” said Carnathan. “When you make a hole at the bottom of an unstable hill, the hill is going to fill it and that’s essentially what happened.”

But Ski said he pleaded with officials for guidance, but has been unable to get clear directions.

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 Rainfall Location last 24 hours since Monday since 10/1 Camarillo 1.77 3.70 8.68 Casitas Dam 1.81 4.88 15.21 Casitas Rec. Ctr 1.42 5.00 13.46 Fillmore 0.83 3.07 11.14 Matilija Dam 1.54 5.79 15.94 Moorpark 1.34 3.27 9.12 Upper Ojai 1.34 5.71 12.69 Oxnard 1.85 3.89 9.35 Piru 0.87 2.84 8.56 Port Hueneme 2.09 4.53 8.69 Santa Paula 1.46 5.63 10.61 Simi Valley 1.06 3.02 7.87 Thousand Oaks 1.34 3.94 8.87 Ventura Govt. Ctr 1.89 4.41 10.35

Normal rainfall Location to date Camarillo 3.00 Casitas Dam 4.75 Casitas Rec. Ctr 5.00 Fillmore 4.31 Matilija Dam 5.15 Moorpark 3.15 Upper Ojai 4.49 Oxnard 2.86 Piru 3.44 Port Hueneme 2.92 Santa Paula 3.83 Simi Valley 2.92 Thousand Oaks 3.94 Ventura Govt. Ctr 3.21

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