Man Is Killed in Storm-Related Crash as Rain Saturates County

A storm that battered Ventura County on Wednesday dumped as much as half an inch of rain per hour on already soaked fields and hillsides, triggering accidents and raising fears of mudslides and flooding.

In Moorpark, a psychologist for the Ventura County Behavioral Health Department was killed when his car crossed a divider on the rain-slicked Ronald Reagan Freeway and slammed into two oncoming trucks.

On highways around Ojai, minor slides sent rocks into the paths of motorists. In Camarillo, firefighters helped children from a house engulfed by churning muddy water. And in low-lying spots throughout the county, property owners watched and waited, wondering whether, as in the season of El Nino, they’d have to rush out for shovels and sandbags.

Weather forecasters predicted a 20% chance of showers this morning and another strong storm on Sunday. If those forecasts hold up, the county could exceed its average seasonal rainfall by next week, said Dolores Taylor, a Ventura County Flood Control hydrologist. That prospect arises after a period so dry that county officials added two months to the annual fire season.

So much moisture in so short a time can be ominous, because the ground, like a saturated sponge, can hold only so much.

“Nothing has reached the real scary stage yet,” Taylor said. “In the last few storms we’ve had, the water’s just been soaking in. Now the saturation of watersheds is getting there.”

Wednesday’s storm hit about 4 a.m., coming on the heels of rain earlier in the week. Before skies cleared in midafternoon, drivers across the county were plowing through puddles up to their hubcaps. In six hours, more than an inch of rain fell on most parts of the county, with more than 2 inches soaking Santa Paula.

Emergency crews patrolled the hills around Ojai that had been scorched in December’s Ranch fire. Despite sparse vegetation, the hills held firm.

“We’re doing very, very well,” said Carl Cooper, headmaster at the Ojai Valley School, where steep slopes had been charred by December’s fire. Since then, workers have cleared drains, yanked debris out of creek beds and lined burned hillsides with sheets of plastic to keep the soil from giving way.

About a mile away, retired Ventura County Firefighter David Morgan ventured outside to assess the damage to his neighborhood.

During El Nino two years ago, the homes along Avenida de la Vereda were inundated, and several sustained severe damage.

“So far it hasn’t come close to what it was last time when it blew everything out,” Morgan said. “But the more rain we have, the more the ground gets saturated, and that’s when we get the problems.”

Those problems will be made even worse if the burned hillsides a few miles away slip and slide, clogging creek beds and forcing water into the streets.

A few slides along California 33, the main route to Ojai, created an obstacle course of rocks. Caltrans crews briefly rerouted traffic as they cleared a slide in Oak View.

Roads were dangerous throughout the county, with 69 accidents reported to the California Highway Patrol.

About 10:45 a.m., Michael Wells Lorr was killed when his car crossed a divider on Ronald Reagan Freeway at Collins Drive, broadsided an eastbound tractor-trailer and then spun into a pickup truck, police said.

Lorr, 55, lived in Ventura and worked in the county behavioral health agency’s Simi Valley office.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, Raymond Garcia, 33, of Pico Rivera was uninjured. The pickup’s driver, Shane Busickio, 24, of Camarillo was treated for minor injuries and released from Simi Valley Hospital.

The accident closed two eastbound lanes of the freeway for more than four hours.

In Camarillo, fire crews carried frightened brothers Andrew and Karl Weiting, ages 9 and 5, from a home on Santa Rosa Road. More than a foot of muddy water had been rising around the low-lying house, cascading into the yard from neighboring properties.

“I’ve never had this kind of situation before,” said Suzanne Weiting, the boys’ mother.

The firefighters put sandbags around the house and drained water from the front by digging a ditch in the backyard.

County residents need not brace for another big storm until Sunday, according to forecasters.

“We’re right between systems,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Hoffer. “The kicker here is that the air mass over us was already unstable from previous storms. It never had a chance to dry out, so that adds to the instability--and, therefore, more rain.”

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Steve Chawkins is a Times staff writer, and Gina Piccalo is a Times Community News reporter. Times staff writer Tracy Wilson and Times Community News reporter Catherine Blake contributed to this story.

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control District for the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. Wednesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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24-hour rain to Rainfall Percent of Normal 8 a.m. since normal rainfall Location Wednesday Oct. 1 rainfall to date Camarillo 0.49 6.34 69.21% 9.16 Casitas Dam 0.89 13.65 83.95% 16.26 Casitas Rec. Center 1.30 12.91 78.86% 16.37 Fillmore 0.49 8.9 67.76% 13.15 Matilija Dam 0.93 15.81 84.82% 18.64 Moorpark 0.42 6.52 65.27% 9.99 Ojai 0.64 10.57 72% 14.68 Upper Ojai 0.78 13.09 82.2% 15.92 Oxnard 0.38 7.88 78.64% 10.02 Piru 0.35 6.88 58.7% 11.72 Port Hueneme 0.45 7.42 75.48% 9.83 Santa Paula 0.52 8.55 69.46% 12.31 Simi Valley 0.21 6.98 72.26% 9.66 Thousand Oaks 0.25 5.96 57.03% 10.45 Ventura Govt. Center 0.78 10.28 92.78% 11.08

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Source: Ventura County Flood Control District