Spring Storm Dumps Up to 4 Inches on Area

A late-season downpour dumped 4 inches of rain in the mountains Monday and 2 to 4 inches in the coastal areas, causing up to 200 crashes that temporarily closed two major highways.

But the hard-hitting storm moved out Monday afternoon just as quickly as it moved in, leaving farmers relieved that their valuable crops of strawberries, just now in season, did not suffer apparent damage.

Pockets of drizzle are expected to continue throughout the morning today, before clearing to sunny skies. Temperatures today should range from the low to mid-60s.

By Wednesday, the skies should remain clear and temperatures will climb to the low 70s, National Weather Service officials said.

Although the storm seemed to come out of the blue after several days of sun, weather officials said it’s not unusual to get such a thunderstorm in April.

“It’s getting toward the end of the rainfall season,” said Steve Pryor, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “But you really can get rain throughout April. Still, this is a pretty significant storm for this time of year.”

The storm hit the county early in the morning, bringing with it problems for commuters. Large pools of water collected on highways and side streets, causing some speeding drivers to skid across the puddles and out of control, said California Highway Patrol Officer David Webb.

“Everyone considered the rainy season over,” Webb said. “Then all of a sudden, we get a big storm like this and people forget their safety rules--leave a big cushion, slow down. People are just driving around like it’s a bright, sunny day.”

Between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., CHP officers scrambled to keep up with more than 200 crashes, most of them fender benders, Webb said.

In the most serious accident, a Jeep Cherokee hydroplaned over a pool of water on California 118 in Simi Valley about 2 p.m. and slammed into a parked tow truck.

The truck lurched forward and struck its driver, who was standing nearby, but he suffered only minor injuries.

The Jeep’s driver, a 64-year-old man whose name has not been released, was taken to Simi Valley Hospital, Webb said.

In another serious accident, officers credit passing motorists for pulling a family from an overturned car that was quickly filling with water after it landed in a drainage culvert.

Officers said Pablo Garcia, 53, was driving his Ford Escort too fast on the westbound California 126 just west of Fillmore shortly before noon when the car spun out of control. The vehicle slammed into a guardrail and flipped into a culvert north of the road.

The culvert was filled with swift-moving water, which quickly began to fill the overturned car, Webb said.

Garcia and his passengers, wife Rachel, 52, and son Pablo Jr., 17, were airlifted to Ventura County Medical Center. Rachel Garcia suffered fractured ribs and collarbone, while Pablo Garcia and his son received only minor injuries.

Both crashes forced CHP officers to shut down the roadways for about an hour.

The steady rain also prompted Ventura County health officials to warn residents to avoid area beaches for the next 72 hours. Rain runoff that spills into storm drains, channels, creeks and rivers will empty into local ocean water, contaminating it, officials from the county’s Environmental Health Division said.

County strawberry farmers, meanwhile, fought their own battle against the pelting rain.

The ripest berries have the thinnest skins, spelling quick damage under a heavy crush of rainfall, said Scott Deardorff, an Oxnard strawberry and vegetable farmer.

“We’ve been picking in the rain all day,” Deardorff said. “The really ripe, very red berries just don’t take this kind of rain very well. So we’ve got to pick every piece of fruit we can.”

Overall, however, agriculture officials expect the late rains to have little effect on the berries. The last heavy rains hit in February, leaving farmlands ready to absorb a steady downpour for at least a day or two.

“It’s not until things get flooded and the berries are sitting under all that water, rotting, that we’ll have a problem,” said Alan Laird, deputy commissioner for the Ventura County Agriculture Commission.

“For now, I’d say this is just a good, healthy rain.”

And despite all that picking under wet skies, Deardorff said he wasn’t particularly concerned about damaged berries or rotting fruit.

“We go through something like this every year,” he said. “If this went on for three or four weeks, then we’d worry. But the greener plants will rebound pretty quickly.”

The steady rain put a damper on income tax filers desperate to meet the Monday mailing deadline.

“They are coming in with their umbrellas; they’re coming in wet,” said Oxnard Postmaster Ray Chavira. “Because no matter if it keeps raining or not, they’re going have to come in here and file their taxes.”

Outside a post office branch on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, dozens of people trickled in after work hours to drop off last-minute tax forms.

“The rain was a pain,” said Jose Fernandez of Westlake Village, who was mailing his state taxes along with a big check. Despite a dash of late-afternoon sunshine, Fernandez said rain and flooded roadways had already made him late for a couple of appointments.

Murray Davis of the San Fernando Valley, who stopped by the post office on his way home from work in Thousand Oaks, said the wet weather didn’t bother him a bit but paying taxes sure did.

“Writing a check to the government, that was the painful part,” he said.

Although the rainfall was heavy, weather officials said the storm would probably not push the month’s totals over the record set in 1965. During April of that year, 5.51 inches of rain fell.

“So, although this is a significant storm, especially for this time of year, it’s not particularly record-setting,” Pryor said.

Upper Ojai was among the areas hit hardest, catching 3.21 inches of rain. Santa Paula got 2.48 inches, and 2.64 fell in Ventura. Moorpark, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Camarillo were hit with between 1.2 and 1.9 inches.

Times Community News Reporter Katie Cooper contributed to this report.

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County Rainfall

Here are unofficial rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control District for the 24-hour period ending at 5 p.m. Monday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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24-hour Season Normal Location total total to date Camarillo 1.26 10.84 12.41 Casitas Dam 3.27 22.96 21.78 Casitas Rec. Center 3.82 21.88 21.77 Fillmore 1.34 14.86 17.56 Matilija Dam 2.09 24.24 24.88 Moorpark 1.34 10.90 13.67 Ojai 1.97 17.90 19.85 Upper Ojai 3.27 21.51 21.76 Oxnard 1.18 12.74 13.57 Piru 0.79 12.19 15.99 Port Hueneme 1.26 12.19 13.12 Santa Paula 2.48 15.07 16.44 Simi Valley 1.22 11.25 13.88 Thousand Oaks 1.89 10.77 14.31 Ventura Govt. Center 2.64 16.85 15.02

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Source: Ventura County Flood Control District