Storm Preparations Quicken

With a storm front looming over the Pacific, Ventura County residents braced for more harsh weather Friday while officials in Fillmore scrambled to fix a storm-damaged levee to head off residential flooding.

Man-made rock walls within Sespe Creek have been ravaged by recent storms, with massive boulders washed away by the powerful currents. Those rock walls buffer the earthen section of the levee that runs along the creek and protects western Fillmore.

But with so much damage to the rock walls, officials fear strong currents could burst through and wash residents out of their homes. While stressing there is no imminent danger, Fillmore officials have declared a state of emergency and hired construction crews to replace the missing 3-ton boulders.

“If [the water] breaks that levee, it’s a half mile from homes,” Fillmore Fire Chief Pat Askren said. “We want to make the repairs before that. This needs to be done in a lull between storms. That’s why we’re pushing this through so fast.”

The $20,000 to $30,000 repair job was to begin late Friday, leaving crews with less than a day before another expected storm swells the creek. That storm is forecast to arrive this afternoon, perhaps dumping up to an inch of rain by early Sunday.

And it could grow much stronger throughout Sunday, lashing the county with intermittent rain for the next two days.

“The systems have kind of blended together into one huge train of moisture,” said Gary Ryan, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard. “This is the kind of picture we were afraid of when we talked about El Nino last summer.

“By the time the storms of the next few days are finished, we could break the record rainfalls for February. Some of those go back into the 1800s, and it looks like we’re going to smash them.”

Property damage to the county stands at $39.4 million, as damage reports continue to pile up from park districts, water agencies and other organizations.

Meanwhile, county officials detailed some of the problems, including nearly $2 million in damage to the county’s jail and airports.

Officials say the two airports have been hit hard--requiring $1.6 million in repairs--and have requested $950,000 from the county to start work--money they hope the federal government will reimburse.

Most of the problems are at Camarillo Airport, officials said. Flood waters clogged storm drains with debris and silt and covered a perimeter road with mud. The rain has also complicated a ramp-repair project, officials said.

The drains “are just filled with silt and debris--just everything you can think of,” said Rod Murphy, airports director. “There’s no canal left. The water’s just spilling into public and private land.”

Oxnard Airport, where the parking lot flooded last week, is also scheduled for drain repairs. The problems, however, were not expected to affect flights at either airport.

At the County Jail near Santa Paula, work crews finished a $262,900 emergency job aimed at shoring up the battered Todd Road Barranca--repairs that officials say saved the jail from catastrophic flooding.

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Weakened by soil erosion, the barranca threatened to overflow and swamp the jail’s electric and water lines, according to a county report.

The prospect of a massive utility outage at the jail and heavy street flooding nearby prompted officials to hire construction crews last week. Workers laid heavy rocks and concrete blocks along the barranca, strengthening the soggy ground.

“We’re out of danger,” said Paul R. Young, the county’s maintenance director.

In Thousand Oaks, health officials declared there is no longer a health hazard from a massive sewage spill last week. Signs posted at several county beaches after 63 million gallons of effluent flowed through the Arroyo Conejo and into the Pacific Ocean have been taken down.

In Ventura, a dozen families remained in local motels Friday after a landslide forced them out of an apartment building on the city’s west end during a storm the day before. Officials evacuated families at the Cedar Apartments as a river of mud poured down a hill behind the complex, stopping at a retaining wall just feet from their building.

Henry Baghdady, who bought the building a few weeks ago, said he has hired crews to dig a drainage ditch near the threatened complex. He said the threat was not severe and that families would be able to return soon.

“The building has been there for 30 years,” he said. “This is California, and no matter where you live, even in a flat land, there’s been problems.”

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About 30 displaced renters expect to be in motels for at least a few days. Red Cross officials assisting the families said they would provide rooms through the weekend.

Landslides are nothing new to 13-year-old Dora Llamas, who said her family was evacuated three winters ago. She was staying with her mother and younger sister in a motel room, their hastily packed clothes in garbage bags.

“It’s the same thing,” she said, recalling the earlier slide. “It’s nature.”

Even with the threat of more rain pounding Ventura hillsides this weekend, city officials Friday said the danger of a wall of water moving down Hall Canyon toward Poli Street has lessened considerably.

“We feel the situation is pretty well under control,” Ventura Fire Department Capt. Dennis Downs said. “At this point we feel the safety of the community is assured. Although we will continue to monitor the situation 24 hours a day.”

Caltrans officials, meanwhile, refused to estimate how long a 20-mile stretch of California 33 north of Ojai will remain closed.

The winding mountain highway was shut during a torrential storm in the first week of February by a massive landslide--about 600,000 cubic yards of earth. “Without a doubt, it’s one of the largest landslides we’ve seen in the last 10 years,” said Vincent Moreno, spokesman for the California Department of Transportation. “It’s huge. It’s earth and boulders and everything that’s in the composition of a mountain.”

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Only when they are sure the slide has stabilized will Caltrans clear the roadway. And officials would not rule out the possibility the road between Wheeler Springs and Lockwood Valley Road may remain inaccessible for an extended period.

The slide also has caused commute headaches for people who have to work in the area, including Sheriff’s Department personnel stationed in Lockwood Valley.

“Everybody’s just had to pick different routes,” said Cathy Sheeran, Lockwood Valley station spokeswoman. Those who commute from Ojai or Ventura now have to make a giant loop by taking California 126 all the way to the Golden State Freeway north and then over to West Lockwood Valley Road.

Times correspondent Robert Gammon contributed to this story.