Storm Drenches County, Bringing Slides and Mud

An overnight storm drenched Ventura County on Wednesday, sending earth tumbling down hillsides, sloshing mud over freeways and streets, and generally mucking up commutes from Ojai to Thousand Oaks.

Hardest hit was a Casitas Springs neighborhood off Nye Road, where a mass of mud, silt and shale raced down a narrow natural barranca about 3:30 a.m. and briefly threatened the residents of three homes.

Elsewhere, fender benders made for miserable driving, but only one accident--a car rolling over an embankment near Moorpark--led to serious injury.

In Casitas Springs, those who live off a private dirt road dubbed Cash Creek Road--where country music legend Johnny Cash once hung his black hat--awoke to a knee-deep soup of mud lapping at the foundations of their homes and threatening to topple their fences.

Rather than bemoaning their fate, they almost seemed to relish the chaos. School-age girls hopped on swings singing “Jungle Boogie” despite the downpour, and neighbors snapped photos as county fire crews used a skip-loader to clear away more than 200 tons of liquid earth.

A little mud is just the cost of admission to this bucolic hollow where purple lupine speckle the hillsides, area residents said.

“This happens; this is nature,” Sean Randall said as fire crews stacked sandbags along the side of his house. “But who do you file a complaint with about nature? If the mud wants to come down, it’s going to come down.”

County building inspectors eventually yellow-tagged Randall’s low-slung bungalow, which had mud pushing against a fence. Fire officials said the residents of Casitas Springs appear safe for the time being. They suffered no serious property damage, no injuries and saw no full-scale evacuations.

“The immediate danger has passed,” said Joe L. Luna, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department. “But any additional rain could soak the hill and cause a similar situation. So long as the barranca flows smoothly, we’re OK.”

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The forecast may not cooperate, however.

More wet weather is on the way, but not of the magnitude of Wednesday’s storm, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service. A shower or two could hit Ventura County early today. A weaker storm brewing up the coast could arrive late Friday or early Saturday.

“We’ll have a wet weekend, especially if the second storm hits the lingering moisture from this one,” Seto said.

Wednesday’s steady patter of rain also loosened the soil along the Rincon. Mud slopped onto the Ventura Freeway just north of the seaside village of La Conchita, causing the state Department of Transportation to close one of the northbound lanes during the morning commute, backing up traffic for about two miles.

The rain also caused a few minor fender-benders, as well as cars spinning out in the mud along the freeway.

“I think we had some people that hit that mud going about 80 mph and reacted by immediately hitting the brakes,” said Murph Walshe, a Ventura County fire captain at Station 25 just north of Seacliff.

The commute in Thousand Oaks got hairy about 7:30 a.m. when a woman driving north on the Ventura Freeway lost control and hit a Greyhound bus en route to Oxnard. While no one was seriously injured, traffic ground to a halt while the California Highway Patrol cleared the bus.

Also complicating matters on the roads was an accident on California 23 north of Moorpark, where a 19-year-old Fillmore resident lost control of his vehicle, which rolled 30 feet down an embankment. Firefighters cut the roof off Jed Hipple’s vehicle and airlifted him to Simi Valley Hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.

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Crews also closed old Pacific Coast Highway between Faria Beach and Solimar after a large pool of mud collected on the thoroughfare. The mud--a foot deep in some spots--covered about 75 yards of roadway.

Local hydrologists watched the storm closely as it moved through the county.

Rain gauges in northern parts of the county recorded 3 to 5 inches of rain. The slow-moving storm dropped 1 to 2 inches of rain on most of the rest of the county.

“We had a nice amount of rain,” said Robin Jester, an engineer with the Ventura County Flood Control District. “It certainly wasn’t anything to sneeze at, but it takes a lot of rain in a short amount of time to cause trouble.”

In Ventura, a new water line broke in the Ondulando neighborhood just after midnight Wednesday, causing city officials to shut down water service to about 300 homes, said Steve Wilson, the city’s water superintendent.

Water was turned back on about 9 a.m., Wilson said.

Officials were not sure if the break in the water line was caused by a slide. A contractor has been working since November to move the city’s water lines in that area and there have been three other breaks since then, Wilson said.

Correspondent Holly J. Wolcott contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour periodending at 5 p.m. Wednesday. 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 1.66 30.75 11.48 Casitas Dam 4.99 51.74 20.00 Casitas Rec. Center 4.08 49.83 20.22 Fillmore 1.99 37.60 16.29 Matilija Dam 4.50 53.58 22.82 Moorpark 1.47 30.22 12.51 Ojai 3.17 41.34 18.19 Upper Ojai 2.48 45.28 19.81 Oxnard 1.80 32.47 12.45 Piru 2.05 33.19 14.63 Port Hueneme 1.29 30.01 12.05 Santa Paula 2.21 35.52 15.27 Simi Valley 1.35 32.28 12.22 Thousand Oaks 1.35 28.64 13.06 Ventura Govt. Center 1.85 37.42 13.87

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* STORM VICTIMS

Those displaced earlier are home or in new lodging. B6

* RELATED PHOTO: A1