3 More Storms Heading for State

Across the state, residents dug out from one winter storm Wednesday and braced for three others barreling in from the Pacific that forecasters said should dump several more inches of rain by Sunday on soggy communities.

Gov. Pete Wilson declared a state of emergency in Ventura County and nine Northern California counties as public works crews struggled to restore essential services, clean storm drains and shore up sliding slopes before the next storm hits today.

“This next storm should be no stronger than the previous one, but it’s hard to get a storm stronger than the one we just had,” said Dan Klinger, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Francisco. “If it keeps raining through Sunday, the messiest days will be Sunday and Monday. It will go from bad to worse if the heavy rain continues without a serious break,” Klinger said.

The storm expected today should bring light showers over most of the state, from San Francisco to San Diego, said Wes Etheredge, forecast meteorologist with WeatherData Inc.

A stronger storm is expected to hit Friday, bringing snow to the Sierra and heavy rains to Northern California. That front is expected to move south, dropping rain as far as San Diego by Friday night.

A third system should start pounding Northern California by Saturday afternoon, moving south by evening. Sunday should bring some relief from the downpours, Etheredge said.

The dismal weekend forecast saddled officials in more than a dozen counties with twin tasks Wednesday--passing out sandbags in preparation for the next storm and dealing with the aftermath of the last one.

Amtrak canceled service on three major passenger rail routes in California, at least for Wednesday, because of the weather. The San Joaquin line between Oakland and Bakersfield, the Coast Starlight line between Los Angeles and Portland and the San Diegan line between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo were halted because of rain, spokesman Dominick Albano said.

Damage estimates began trickling in, with Ventura County officials estimating that farmers there suffered $5.5 million in crop losses. Hardest hit were the county’s ripening strawberry fields, with damage estimated at $3.5 million.

“Right now it’s not a real big hit,” said county Agricultural Commissioner W. Earl McPhail. “But depending on what happens over the next five days, it could end up being a big one.”

Hueneme Pier was another Ventura County storm victim, losing about 200 feet of a spur to the pounding waves. Officials estimated repairs will cost $400,000.

In the city of Port Hueneme, 14 families flooded out of an aging apartment complex remained homeless Wednesday. After spending the night at an emergency shelter at Hueneme High School, many of the 40 displaced renters returned to try to salvage drenched couches and clothing.

Nearly all of the more than 12,000 people ordered to evacuate in more than a dozen counties on Tuesday were home Wednesday. Several hundred had slept in hastily opened shelters, others stayed with friends, and some ignored mandatory orders to leave and simply stayed put.

Hardest hit Tuesday were the Northern California counties of Alameda, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Sonoma, Glenn, Santa Clara and Tehama; they were included in the state of emergency declared by by the governor. They also appeared likely to be hit hardest by the storms moving in.

In Sonoma County, officials worried about the Russian River, which crested at 38.57 feet Tuesday night in Guerneville, then started to recede. Flood stage is at 32 feet.

“When this next storm comes in, if it packs the punch they’re anticipating and we’re still at the levels we’re at now, we’re concerned it will hit very hard,” said Sonoma County spokeswoman Janice Atkinson. “The ground is saturated, and there won’t be any place for the water to go.”

Watsonville and Pajaro, neighboring cities straddling the border between Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and which were subject to the largest mandatory evacuations, gave the all-clear to about 11,000 residents Wednesday afternoon.

“City officials in Watsonville are shaking their fingers sternly at these people, telling them to remain vigilant and be ready to leave in an instant,” said Dinah Phillips, spokeswoman for the Office of Emergency Services for Santa Cruz County.

Calaveras County authorities continued to search for Darell Phillips--the former publisher of the Manteca Bulletin--although he was presumed dead, officials said. On Tuesday, Phillips had been swept from a bridge and disappeared down O’Neil Creek.

But Wednesday was largely spent mopping up and watching the skies. The Red Cross planned to keep its mostly empty shelters open all weekend in several Northern California counties, just in case.

Under cloudy but dry skies, engineers worked to repair a 200-foot hole in a levee on Santa Cruz County’s Pajaro River. County officials estimated damage to roads, bridges and infrastructure at $11 million.

Monterey County officials gave a rough figure of $10 million in damages “and we think that is going to be considerably more as we become aware of more problems,” said Kathy Tice, spokeswoman for Monterey’s Office of Emergency Services.

In Los Angeles, about a mile of beachfront was closed to swimmers after the Tuesday storm caused two waste water spills. About 23,000 gallons of waste water entered Ballona Creek through storm drains and was diluted with billions of gallons of rainwater from the storm, said David Mays, a spokesman for the city public works department.

In the San Fernando Valley, crews worked late into the night Tuesday to restore power to 10,000 blacked-out customers. Workers also spent the day clearing fallen trees and limbs from roadways throughout the Valley.

PG & E reported that about 27,000 customers were still without power Wednesday, many of them along the Central Coast.

But even as residents and cleanup crews across the state cleared mud and debris from roads and homes, many feared that the approaching storms will make a mockery of their efforts by week’s end.

“The creeks are such a mess that everyone is concerned about the storms coming in,” said a weary Mary McMillan, spokeswoman for San Mateo County’s Office of Emergency Services. Some $1 million-plus homes flooded in Palo Alto on Tuesday, but residents were allowed to return Wednesday after San Francisquito Creek subsided.

On the coast south of San Francisco, residents in the tiny town of Pescadero were digging out.

“It’s just mud everywhere,” said a dispirited Tim Duarte, owner of Duarte’s Restaurant on the 500-strong town’s main street. “The whole town is just cleaning mud today--and laying out sandbags for tomorrow.”

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Chris Chi, Richard Warchol, Nick Green, Daryl Kelley, Karima A. Haynes, Miles Corwin, Solomon Moore, Geoff Boucher and correspondent Dawn Hobbs.