Countywide : Farmers Prepare for First Heavy Frost After Rainstorm

Ventura County farmers prepared to fight their first heavy frost of the season Friday after a brisk storm passed through the area, dropping up to half an inch of rain. The storm was blamed for a fatal accident and the collapse of a road in Ventura.

Light rain was falling at 5:20 p.m. Thursday when a motorist driving south on Ventura Avenue struck a pedestrian as she attempted to cross the street in a crosswalk near Holt Street, the California Highway Patrol reported.

Catherine J. Lane, 67, of Ventura was taken to Ventura County Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at 11:15 p.m., the CHP said.

The driver, 58-year-old William C. Lambert of Ventura, told investigators he did not see Lane because of the rain. Lambert was uninjured, the CHP said.

The storm, which increased seasonal rain totals to above normal over most of the county, brought a mass of cold air that was expected to drop temperatures to below freezing in many of the county’s prime agricultural areas, said Terry Schaeffer, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Schaeffer said temperatures were expected to drop below freezing by 10 p.m. Friday in some of the county’s colder areas and by midnight in other growing areas, with temperatures as low as 26 predicted in the coldest pockets. Temperatures should be moderate tonight.

“The key is to do all the preparation you can, getting the wind machines ready and getting your people in place,” said Link Leavens, whose family farms 300 acres of lemons and avocados in Ventura, Santa Paula and Moorpark.

Leavens said the damage from the season’s first freeze should be limited by just the use of wind machines, which are powered by gas-driven 8-cylinder and 6-cylinder engines.

More dramatic strategies--like spraying water on the trees to form a protective coating of ice--would be necessary only if temperatures drop below the mid-20s, Leavens said.

In Ventura, Foothill Road between Day Road and Victoria Avenue was closed Friday as city workers repaired a hole that appeared in the roadway after Thursday’s rain, officials said. The road is expected to remain closed for most of today.

The north shoulder of the road caved in on an area where workers are replacing an underground storm drain, said city engineer Ron Calkins. The old storm drain is corroded and created pockets of air, he said.

Workers will try to repair the storm drain and close the hole by sundown because another storm is expected to arrive in the area Sunday, Calkins said.

Ventura County Rainfall

As of 5 p.m. Friday

Rainfall Rainfall normal Location Storm total year to date this time of year Ojai 0.43 4.45 4.88 Ventura 0.35 5.24 3.37 Oxnard 0.08 4.76 3.34 Camarillo 0.31 2.87 3.46 Thousand Oaks 0.31 3.31 3.62 Simi Valley 0.20 3.90 3.38 Moorpark 0.16 3.07 3.61 Santa Paula 0.43 5.00 4.42 Fillmore 0.31 5.20 4.95