Unstable Hillside Sends 10 Ventura Residents Packing

While thousands of county residents emerged from their homes to gaze at blue skies Sunday, an advancing wall of mud drove 10 people from a Ventura apartment building and crews contained a small oil spill in the hills above the city.

Meanwhile, emergency workers and rain-weary residents braced for more bad weather. The National Weather Service predicted another storm striking Southern California overnight, dumping an additional 2 to 3 inches on coastal areas of waterlogged Ventura County and as much as 5 inches in the mountains. This storm is expected to end midday Tuesday.

Anticipating the possibility of major damage, county officials planned to open their emergency operations center at 5 a.m. today. From the center, located in the basement of the county Administration Building in Ventura, they planned to monitor high surf, surging creeks and cascading slopes.

“Landslides and mudslides are the signature of this event, these El Nino-caused disasters,” said Laura Hernandez, assistant director of the county Office of Emergency Services.

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Residents of mud-choked Cedar Street in west Ventura wouldn’t disagree.

Early Sunday morning, 10 of them fled a four-unit apartment building after Ventura Fire Department safety inspectors warned that the steep hillside behind their units was dangerously close to slipping. Three other buildings in the complex at 790 Cedar St. are still occupied.

The affected building, about half a block away from a complex evacuated Thursday, was still undamaged Sunday afternoon. Red Cross volunteers directed the occupants of both buildings to temporary quarters.

Mark Hughes, 44, and his mother, Mary Hughes Cary, 63, loaded clothing and valuables into their car in a morning drizzle, anticipating a two-night stay at the Vagabond Inn on Thompson Boulevard. While taking the evacuation in stride, they worried about their cat, Bob, one of eight pets that had to leave the building.

“He hunts that hill,” Hughes said, gesturing to the muddy slope rising almost vertically just a few feet behind their home.

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Later in the day, about a dozen of the complex’s other occupants helped the building manager set sandbags and plastic tarps on the hill to divert the mudflow. The neighbors toted sandbags as far as 100 feet up the slick slope.

“We’re all in this together,” said Hughes, who has lived at the complex for three years.

Down the street, mud smashed through a rear window of 612 Cedar St., the building evacuated last week.

One of the residents, who would only identify himself as Mike B., evacuated from that building said he would try to find the people who lived in the invaded apartment. After that, he said, he would look for a new place to rent.

“What’s the next storm going to do?” he asked. “I’ve never seen it rain so much in my life.”

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Mudslides also have wreaked havoc in the rugged hills north of the city. A slide in a remote area of Hall Canyon ruptured a crude-oil pipeline about 8:15 a.m. Sunday. It was the area’s fourth--and smallest--energy pipeline break in a little more than a week.

As many as 168 gallons spewed from the broken pipe, said Hernandez of the Office of Emergency Services.

A small amount of the crude seeped into the east fork of Hall Canyon Barranca, leaving an oily sheen on the water. The accident happened about a mile north of a giant landslide last week that caused a larger oil spill and blocked the barranca with a temporary earthen dam, creating a 30-million-gallon lake.

“The new spill wasn’t major,” Hernandez said. “It didn’t reach the ocean or anything like that.”

Crews from Aera Energy quickly contained the spill and expected to have it mopped up by nightfall, said Aera spokeswoman Susan Hersberger. A joint venture of Shell Oil and Mobil, the Bakersfield-based company is the biggest producer of crude oil in California.

Shell Oil crews, meanwhile, continued to inspect the site of an 8,400-gallon spill Feb. 14, said Dale Carnathan, program administrator for the Office of Emergency Services.

Carnathan said they’ve found no additional crude oil from that spill, largely because it is buried beneath a landslide that broke Shell’s 10-inch pipeline. Officials consider that oil spill contained and have shut down the broken pipeline, he said.

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Mud problems also led to injuries for a 15-year-old boy who was hurt on the slippery banks of Calleguas Creek near the Ventura Freeway in Camarillo.

The teen, who broke his leg when he became trapped in the rocks and mud, was airlifted by emergency crews to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, a Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman said.

While some county residents were grappling Sunday with the prospects of mud and flood, many others were enjoying a brisk shot of clear weather.

At the Camarillo Premium Outlets shopping center, thousands of bargain hunters were out in force. Several stores displayed signs that warmed their hearts: “Spring lines arrive soon!”

“I thought we’d have the whole place to ourselves, but it looks like everyone else had the same idea,” said Newhall resident Marcelle Ellis, 65, as she sat on a bench munching a chocolate-chip cookie. “It was supposed to be raining all day, but it’s been dry ever since we got here. I love it.”

At the beach in Ventura, Rudy Gonzalez rode herd over his excited children, 6-year-old Stephanie and 5-year-old Rudy Jr., who were throwing rocks and bamboo spears into the ocean.

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“These two have been inside all week,” said Gonzalez, a construction worker from Fillmore.

Taking advantage of the lull between storms, a few surfers skimmed through churning chocolate waters.

Jim Browne drove more than two hours from Tehachapi to hit the waves at Surfers Point.

“It’s pretty rough getting out there, but that’s OK,” he said. “I’m here for the tranquillity.”

The threat of sewage contamination didn’t faze him.

“It’s not that bad anymore,” he said. “That water has been moved around so much by the storms this last week that I don’t think it’s a problem.”

The Surfers Point beach, along with the entire stretch down the coast to Ventura Harbor, has been officially closed because of raw sewage released into the Ventura River on Feb. 8 from a pipeline serving the Casitas Springs treatment plant. The plant is operated by the Ojai Valley Sanitary District.

As usual, people leaned on the railings at Ventura Pier, squinting out to the horizon. A recent storm tore some piles and steel bracing from the pier, which is closed just beyond the seafood restaurant at its base. Contractors are scheduled to start working on the damaged pier Friday, said Ventura City Councilman Brian Brennan.

The pier at Port Hueneme is still closed to the public but is standing firm, city officials said Sunday.

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It had lost one of its arms to raging waves Feb. 3; the other arm was knocked off by winter storms in 1995.

One casualty of Sunday’s on-and-off weather was the 3rd Annual Whale Celebration event at Ventura Harbor Village.

Nearly 3,000 people had hoped to peruse 25 booths set up by nonprofit organizations supporting whales. But only two booths went up in the intermittent drizzle because of the threat of heavier rain, said Cherryl Connally, events director at the harbor.

“The crowds were disappointed,” Connally said. “It was a tough call because it was clear at 10 a.m., but around 3:30 it started to rain.”

The event has been rescheduled for March 22, Connally said.

Officials on Sunday nervously pondered damage from the coming storm.

The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood watch Sunday afternoon, warning that the expected heavy rainfall today might not be absorbed by saturated soil.

Showers were expected in the west county late Sunday, turning to steady rain overnight, said meteorologist Dedric Walker. The heaviest rain--as much as an inch an hour--was expected today.

Highs today should be about 60 degrees, with lows later in the day falling to the upper 40s and low 50s.

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The storm front should bring high winds and possible thunderstorms. Waves are expected to reach 8 feet. Forecasters said rain would last into Tuesday morning, with showers tapering off by noon.

After that, the county might be able to catch its breath for about 48 hours. The next storm is expected Thursday night, although it was too early Sunday for forecasters to predict its severity.

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Steve Chawkins is a Times staff writer and Cathy Murillo is a correspondent. Correspondents Robert Gammon and Troy Heie also contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Sunday . Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 1.18 25.74 9.08 Casitas Dam 2.68 40.57 16.09 Casitas Rec. Center 2.60 39.83 16.20 Fillmore 0.91 29.29 13.02 Matilija Dam 2.05 40.15 18.44 Moorpark 1.69 25.98 9.90 Ojai 1.96 31.02 14.53 Upper Ojai 1.89 34.50 15.74 Oxnard 0.98 27.71 9.92 Piru 2.95 25.36 11.61 Port Hueneme 0.71 26.36 9.73 Santa Paula 2.20 29.39 12.10 Simi Valley 1.30 25.79 9.57 Thousand Oaks 0.98 23.84 10.35 Ventura Govt. Center 1.14 32.57 10.97

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