Rain Plants Smiles, Frowns on Growers
For vegetable grower Ed Terry, it was the perfect storm.
Three days of heavy rains that closed roads, flooded intersections and sent giant waves crashing into oceanfront homes came just as his workers had planted 28 acres of mixed lettuce in soil parched from weeks of east winds and warm weather.
“The minute we finished planting, the rainstorm started,” said Terry, who grows lettuce, celery and peppers in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo. “The way things worked out, we couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
The Pacific front that moved in Wednesday dumped up to 8 inches of rain from Ventura to Thousand Oaks, pushing rainfall levels above normal in most areas of the county. Inland areas, such as Upper Ojai and Lake Casitas, got the heaviest drenching while coastal cities averaged closer to 4 inches.
Residents and farmers can expect to dry out for the next week with more east winds possible Monday, said David Gomberg, National Weather Service meteorologist.
“This was the last hurrah,” he said.
Temperatures today will be cooler than normal, hovering in the low 60s, Gomberg said. This week’s winter storm--the first substantial one of the season--caused only minor property damage and no injuries.
“We’re a whole lot closer to normal, and in some places above average,” said Dolores Taylor, Ventura County senior hydrologist. “This was a very beneficial rain.”
For the most part, the storm was good news for the county’s agriculture community.
“Some are thrilled and saying this is nirvana,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “But for others it was a pain in the rear end that . . . may have caused losses from flooding.”
For Santa Paula farmer Bob Pinkerton, who grows avocados and lemons, it all came too quick. It’s like sitting down for lunch and being told you have to eat an eight-course meal, Pinkerton said.
“We got almost 30% of our average rainfall in a couple of days,” he said.
Paul DeBusschere, who grows lemons and avocados on the Oxnard Plain, said two smaller storms would have been ideal to get as much out of the natural irrigation as possible. But he isn’t complaining. He was already seeing the effects of the dry winter in the size of his lemons, which have pushed market prices down.
“It was becoming a real problem,” DeBusschere said. “There’s just no replacement for rainfall. It does wonders for everything.”
The rain not only brought most precipitation totals up to normal, it helped replenish the county’s reservoir system, Taylor said. And in the mountains, a late but welcome snow brought more than a foot of ground cover, said Fawn Gasaway, dispatcher at the Lockwood Valley sheriff’s substation.
“People coming up here need to be prepared and bring chains,” she said.
As the showers tapered off and clouds broke to reveal blue skies and sunshine late Friday morning, owners of homes perched along Faria Beach breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed the pounding swells that sprayed seawater as high as rooftops.
“We really weren’t worried at all,” said Saylor Milton, who has lived with his wife Caroline on the beach for 20 years. “You get used to it.”
Their home received no damage from this week’s storm, but they monitored the tides and braced themselves as crashing waves shook the home’s foundation.
Next door, 21-year-old Camarillo resident Scott Jordan was keeping watch on things for his grandmother, who owns the beach house. He boarded up the first-floor windows and hung around the back porch with a few friends until the peak of Friday’s high tide.
And when the breakers crashed into the sea wall, they didn’t mind getting a little wet.
California Department of Transportation officials reported no road closures, though the Ventura Freeway State Beaches onramp shut down temporarily during the morning high tide.
George Foster, 25, was one of few surfers who braved the bitter, windy conditions and choppy waves at Rincon Point just as the rain started to move south. Swells today will calm down to about 4 to 6 feet, weather officials said.
Foster, a San Diego resident, drove to Ventura on Friday morning just for the surf. He said he won’t be bothered by the county’s health warnings about bacteria contamination from runoff.
“I know it’s probably bad, but it’s not enough to keep me out,” he said. “It’s worth it--there are no people and it’s big.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
County Rainfall
Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Division for the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. Friday . Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.
Location: Camarillo
Rainfall last 24 hours: .04
Rainfall since Monday: 3.48
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 4.23
Normal rainfall to date: 5.47
*
Location: Casitas Dam
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.12
Rainfall since Monday: 7.02
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 9.93
Normal rainfall to date: 9.17
*
Location: Casitas Rec. Center
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.997
Rainfall since Monday: 7.91
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 10.68
Normal rainfall to date: 9.27
*
Location: Fillmore
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.30
Rainfall since Monday: 6.87
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 7.90
Normal rainfall to date: 7.68
*
Location: Matilija Dam
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.48
Rainfall since Monday: 7.83
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 10.94
Normal rainfall to date: 10.05
*
Location: Moorpark
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.60
Rainfall since Monday: 4.25
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 5.12
Normal rainfall to date: 5.79
*
Location: Ojai
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.94
Rainfall since Monday: 6.32
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 8.48
Normal rainfall to date: 8.09
*
Location: Upper Ojai
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.34
Rainfall since Monday: 7.94
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 10.75
Normal rainfall to date: 8.63
*
Location: Oxnard
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.04
Rainfall since Monday: 4.58
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 5.29
Normal rainfall to date: 5.57
*
Location: Piru
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.50
Rainfall since Monday: 3.55
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 4.21
Normal rainfall to date: 6.61
*
Location: Port Hueneme
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.94
Rainfall since Monday: 3.54
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 4.30
Normal rainfall to date: 5.53
*
Location: Santa Paula
Rainfall last 24 hours: .98
Rainfall since Monday: 5.77
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 7.29
Normal rainfall to date: 6.98
*
Location: Simi Valley
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.62
Rainfall since Monday: 4.02
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 5.23
Normal rainfall to date: 5.52
*
Location: Thousand Oaks
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.42
Rainfall since Monday: 3.64
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 4.25
Normal rainfall to date: 5.90
*
Location: Ventura Govt. Center
Rainfall last 24 hours: 1.31
Rainfall since Monday: 5.34
Rainfall since Oct. 1: 6.43
Normal rainfall to date: 6.17
