State Comes to County’s Aid as Storm Toll Climbs

As another storm approached Wednesday, Gov. Pete Wilson declared Ventura County a disaster area, and officials estimated weather damage at $8.5 million and rising--with farmers taking the hardest hit.

The governor’s declaration of a state of emergency in Ventura and nine other waterlogged counties in Northern California allows local officials to recover 75% of the costs of emergency operations. There were no immediate estimates of those costs.

But officials said this week’s powerful storm delivered a $5.5-million blow to county farmers, and that it will cost at least $3 million to repair damaged creeks, roads, the Hueneme Pier and a Mandalay Bay sea wall.

A broken Thousand Oaks sewage line expected to spill as much 18 million gallons of raw effluent will cost $100,000 to repair. And a collapsed bridge that closed California 118 near Moorpark will prompt costly repairs in the weeks to come before it is reopened.

In Ventura alone, officials said damage to public facilities was at least $500,000--about $146,000 to parks and trees, $100,000 to streets and curbs in the Harbortown area, up to $90,000 at the Ventura Pier and $60,000 to sewer and water lines.

“These are preliminary estimates and we expect the costs to rise,” said Laura Hernandez, who manages the sheriff’s office of emergency services. Not included are expenses for emergency response, cleanup and damage to state, federal and private property--such as businesses and homes.

At least 26 homes in Port Hueneme and the Ojai Valley were flooded during the three-day storm that dumped about 7 inches of rain on coastal areas and 11 inches in the Ojai mountains.

Seven more homes in Ventura’s Avenue area were red-tagged as uninhabitable because of a sliding hillside above them. And Ventura officials said that emergency crews responded to flood and mud calls at 100 homes and businesses.

Losses in the county’s valuable strawberry crop accounted for most of the crop damage--$3.5 million. But growers of celery, broccoli, cauliflower and sod also lost about $500,000 each. About 250 to 300 farm acres of the Oxnard Plain were fully submerged and 1,000 partially flooded before water that overflowed Calleguas Creek began to recede, officials said.

The $5.5-million crop loss figure compares with $23 million in January 1995, when two weeks of rain dropped a record 15 inches on the Oxnard Plain. This week, about 7 inches had fallen by Wednesday evening.

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

In fact, a storm not expected until the weekend was fast approaching the Ventura coast late Wednesday. The National Weather Service set the chance of rain at 50% Wednesday night and 70% today.

“The door is open, and this stuff is moving in very rapidly,” said meteorologist Gary Ryan of the Weather Service’s Oxnard office. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to be anywhere near as strong. But then this weekend, there is the possibility of heavy rains.”

From 1 to 2 inches of rain is expected in coastal areas Thursday and Friday, and from 2 to 4 inches in the mountains. The same amount is expected from a second storm Saturday night and Sunday.

Any new system would have to be very large to compare to the one that thundered through the county Monday and Tuesday.

Those downpours dropped 7.64 inches at the County Government Center in Ventura, raising this season’s total to 21 inches, nearly three times the normal for early February.

Ryan said seasonal rainfall now exceeds that of the notorious El Nino winter of 1982-83. For example, rain by Feb. 4 for that winter was 15.12 inches at the Oxnard Weather Service office, compared with 18.33 inches this winter and a normal of 8.07, Ryan said.

“We’re 10 inches above normal and that’s amazing,” he said.

As officials pondered the season’s phenomenal weather, those who had suffered most from this week’s storms began digging out, cleaning up and returning home.

Graders scraped mud from Fillmore Street in La Conchita, where a slippery hillside that crushed homes in 1995 stayed put this time. Officials pondered what to do about $100,000 in erosion damage on Santa Paula Creek and $400,000 to a sea wall undermined by storm drain surges in Oxnard’s luxury Mandalay Bay community.

In east Ojai, all but two of 10 families whose homes were flooded when a retaining wall burst near Thacher Creek returned home.

“You think of disasters as whole buildings gone; that’s not always true,” said Chris Roe, who watched a 5-foot-high wall of water descend on her house before dawn Tuesday. “Financially, we’re getting to the breaking point.”

Damage to her home is in the thousands of dollars, she said.

In 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 residents returned to try to salvage drenched couches and clothing.

Officials said repairs to the one-story complex from foot-high water would cost $25,000 to $50,000. Repairs could take up to a week, but some families said they are planning to move out for good.

Salvador Perez had far more to worry about than the new $1,000 couch he lost in the flood.

His wife, Mary, is pregnant with their third child and due to deliver any day. The Red Cross had put the family up at a local hotel, but Perez said all the unanticipated bills are causing him stress. “I’m not rich,” he said.

Port Hueneme officials, meanwhile, said they are trying to find ways to rebuild their rickety pier before it is damaged even more.

The 30-year-old pier, a T-shaped before a 1995 storm swept away its left arm, lost its right arm to a pounding surf Tuesday morning.

It will cost about $400,000 to repair both arms, City Manager Dick Velthoen said. About $290,000 of that is available through federal funds secured after the 1995 damage, and the city will try to get more disaster funds this time, he said.

“Maybe there is a configuration that would be superior to the T-shape with respect to withstanding wave damage,” Velthoen said.

The remaining 1,050 feet of the old fishing pier can stand without its T arms, officials said, but it will remain closed until inspectors make sure it’s safe.

“Out on the last 40 feet of the pier there’s a lot of movement with each swell that comes through,” said Denis Murrin, city facilities manager. “We know it’s serious.”

At least four pilings are cracked, and are “flopping around a lot and not supporting any weight,” he said.

Murrin said he’ll be keeping a close eye on the pier through this weekend’s storms.

“It’s not a stable situation,” he said.

Times staff writer Chris Chi and correspondents Nick Green and Dawn Hobbs contributed to this story.

* NEW STORMS: Waterlogged communities are bracing for more rain. A3

Related stories, photos: B1