Inland Areas Hit With Nearly 7 Inches of Rain

Heavy seas churning 20-foot waves battered the Ventura County coastline Thursday as the season’s first major storm flooded streets, closed a popular beachfront highway and caused minor damage to several expensive oceanfront homes.

In the mountains, snow levels dropped to 3,500 feet, and the season’s first snowfall measured a foot in some areas, officials said.

Rain and possible thunderstorms will continue through this morning before partly cloudy conditions move in, forecasters said.

Inland parts of Ventura County took the brunt of the precipitation, as some areas near Fillmore, Santa Paula and Ojai had almost 7 inches of rain, said meteorologist Bill Hoffer of the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Along the coast, several areas had received at least 3 inches of rain by Thursday afternoon.

Thursday’s rain brought overall rainfall totals in some parts of the county to normal levels, county flood control officials said.

The storm front’s main head hit land Wednesday afternoon, a few hours earlier than forecasters predicted, and had moved through the county by Thursday afternoon.

As it did, the storm made an indelible mark that left some residents assessing water damage and others watching the massive shore break.

Nervous homeowners along Ventura’s north coast, with the Old Rincon Highway out their backdoors and the Pacific Ocean in front, covered plate-glass windows with plywood as waves, estimated in some places at 15 to 20 feet, hit with relentless force.

Miles north in Ojai, county firefighters worked Wednesday night and early Thursday morning answering dozens of calls from residents complaining about clogged storm drains, flooded garages and soggy yards after the storm dumped more than 5 inches of rain.

At the Ventura Beach Pier on Thursday afternoon, city engineers inspected pylons that hold the wooden structure above the water. Officials closed the pier Wednesday night as a precaution but reopened it Thursday.

The storm’s force was most evident along the coast.

Near a row of oceanfront homes, dozens of people parked their cars on Old Rincon Highway and clambered onto a row of large boulders to watch the crashing waves. Thursday’s high tide at 9:51 a.m. sent waves cascading over the boulders, splashing onlookers and sending them running for cover.

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Tim Finnigan, however, couldn’t run away. His beachfront home, supported by thick steel posts driven deep into the ground, suffered minor damage to walls that absorbed the full force of the waves.

“It’s the price of living here. It’s a real trade-off,” said Finnigan, a 20-year resident of the coast north of Ventura.

Next door, contractor Earl Saulet worked to rebuild Rick O’Hara’s home, which was damaged severely during the 1998 El Nino storms. Saulet was hip-deep in water after falling into an electrical vault in Finnigan’s driveway as he tried to clear debris.

Thursday’s waves hit O’Hara’s home so powerfully that they cracked a 20-inch-thick cement sea wall finished in November.

“How many times in your life do you see something like this?” O’Hara asked as he assessed the damage.

A few miles south, the surging waves lured a few surfers to part of a closed section of Emma Wood State Beach.

“If you really like to surf the big surf, then this is when you have to go out,” said Davey Smith, 42, who operates a surfing school in Santa Barbara.

As tempting as the waves looked to surfers Thursday, county environmental health officials warned against going into the sea.

Richard Hauge, coordinator for the county’s Ocean Water Quality Monitoring Program, said swimmers and surfers should stay out of the waves for at least 72 hours after the storm clears to avoid hazardous bacteria washed into the ocean.

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At several beaches, signs were posted Thursday to warn people to stay out of the water.

Twenty-three of 53 sampling locations posted at beaches along the county’s 42 miles of coastline failed state standards for acceptable levels of bacteria, Hauge said.

In Thousand Oaks, the rains led to a release of partially treated sewage into the Conejo Creek, county environmental officials said. The Ventura County Environmental Health Division on Thursday warned all residents to avoid contact with any county waterway affected by storm water runoff.

In the northern reaches of the county, the rain turned into a heavy overnight snow that piled up a foot on the ground. Throughout the day, the snow flurried but caused few problems in the sparsely populated area where residents are used to snow.

This one came later than usual.

“Normally, we would have had it well before now, as early as October,” said Deputy Dave Gasaway of the Lockwood Valley sheriff’s substation. “This is really great.”

Gasaway said the station and many residents were on generator power because of electric outages, which are fairly typical for the area, though not to this extent.

“Usually this time of year we have off-and-on power outages, but not up to . . . a dozen a day,” Gasaway said. “Might have something to do with [the statewide energy] problem.”

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Times staff writer Matt Surman contributed to this report.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

Location: Camarillo

Rainfall last 24 hours: 2.71

Rainfall since Monday: 2.84

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 3.59

Normal rainfall to date: 5.30

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Location: Casitas Dam

Rainfall last 24 hours: 5.58

Rainfall since Monday: 5.89

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 8.80

Normal rainfall to date: 9.00

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Location: Casitas Rec. Center

Rainfall last 24 hours: 5.67

Rainfall since Monday: 5.92

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 8.69

Normal rainfall to date: 9.11

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Location: Fillmore

Rainfall last 24 hours: 5.46

Rainfall since Monday: 5.57

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 6.60

Normal rainfall to date: 7.55

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Location: Matilija Dam

Rainfall last 24 hours: 6.07

Rainfall since Monday: 6.37

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 9.48

Normal rainfall to date: 9.85

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Location: Moorpark

Rainfall last 24 hours: 2.50

Rainfall since Monday: 2.65

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 3.52

Normal rainfall to date: 5.68

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Location: Ojai

Rainfall last 24 hours: 4.50

Rainfall since Monday: 4.78

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 6.94

Normal rainfall to date: 7.94

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Location: Upper Ojai

Rainfall last 24 hours: 6.35

Rainfall since Monday: 6.60

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 9.41

Normal rainfall to date: 8.45

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Location: Oxnard

Rainfall last 24 hours: 3.29

Rainfall since Monday: 3.54

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 4.25

Normal rainfall to date: 5.46

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Location: Piru

Rainfall last 24 hours: 2.05

Rainfall since Monday: 2.05

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 2.71

Normal rainfall to date: 6.48

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Location: Port Hueneme

Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.33

Rainfall since Monday: 1.60

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 2.36

Normal rainfall to date: 5.43

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Location: Santa Paula

Rainfall last 24 hours: 4.60

Rainfall since Monday: 4.79

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 6.31

Normal rainfall to date: 6.86

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Location: Simi Valley

Rainfall last 24 hours: 2.90

Rainfall since Monday: 3.00

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 3.61

Normal rainfall to date: 5.41

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Location: Thousand Oaks

Rainfall last 24 hours: 2.03

Rainfall since Monday: 2.22

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 2.83

Normal rainfall to date: 5.79

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Location: Ventura Govt. Center

Rainfall last 24 hours: 3.80

Rainfall since Monday: 4.03

Rainfall since Oct. 1: 5.12

Normal rainfall to date: 6.05