State Digs Out as U.S. 101 Reopens : Storm: Ventura County’s worst flooding in two decades recedes. Rain continues in Northern California. Early damage estimates rise to $112 million.

Armed with shovels, rain gear and a fresh federal declaration of disaster, Ventura County began digging out Wednesday from its worst flood in more than two decades and counting up a multimillion-dollar toll of devastation to crops, roads and property.

Caltrans crews cleared mud and debris off the northbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway, opening the route north to hundreds of stranded truckers and other motorists who jammed Ventura motels or spent a cramped night in their vehicles on freeway on-ramps and side streets.

Taking advantage of a break from heavy rain, road crews and residents across California launched furiously into work on mudslides and water damage from Tuesday’s deluge and earlier rainstorms. Some just enjoyed a few moments outside without being pelted by rainfall.

“It’s so incredible to be out right now,” said Eddie Guthman, marveling at the mist-shrouded mountains and waterfalls near his Matilija Canyon home above Ojai.

Although the National Weather Service predicted some chance of rain for Ventura County today and over the weekend, weather forecasters generally downplayed chances of another major storm this week.

Across the state, preliminary damage estimates rose to $112 million. The state Office of Emergency Services said $62 million in damage was reported in 12 counties, but several heavily damaged areas, such as Los Angeles and Ventura counties, had yet to make complete assessments. In Sacramento County alone, damage was set at more than $50 million.

In Ventura, police tried to keep homeless from returning to their encampments in the usually dry Ventura River bottom that were crushed by Tuesday’s torrential flows.

“They can’t keep us out,” said Patrick Haskett, 32, as he loaded a few of the possessions he salvaged from the ruins of his riverbed shanty into a handcart Wednesday morning.

He said he was forced to sneak onto the river bottom near Stanley Avenue because police were blocking the usual entrance near Main Street. The muddy waters, which reached from bank to bank Tuesday, had receded so that they flowed only through portions of the riverbed on Wednesday.

In other developments:

* Huge, storm-driven waves knocked loose another 30 pilings from the Ventura Pier, substantially weakening the historic wooden structure that was refurbished last year. Repairs will cost $300,000--double earlier estimates, said Ventura Public Works Director Ron Calkins. In Port Hueneme, a sagging portion of pier drooped another 12 inches. But workers continued to replace missing pilings and saw little additional damage.

* Metrolink resumed its commuter rail service to Moorpark, Camarillo and Oxnard, after railroad crews worked throughout the night to reinforce a bridge over Arroyo Simi that had been weakened by raging waters and debris. “Everything was back to normal,” said Metrolink spokesman Peter Hidalgo. Amtrak has yet to resume service through Ventura County because of mud on the tracks.

* Authorities reported no other storm-related deaths and identified the body of the homeless man found Tuesday in the Ventura River bottom as William Lee Shubert. Shubert, 31, formerly of Camarillo, took up residence in the river bottom two years ago and had a history of mental illness.

* County agriculture officials estimated crop damage at almost $23 million--four times the damage of the 1992 flooding. “The majority of the losses will be in strawberries, leaf lettuce and other crops grown on the Oxnard Plain,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

* Assessments of other damage were trickling in, with no overall estimates. Thousand Oaks reported 19 houses with flood damage and four city facilities. Camarillo estimated cleanup costs at $25,000, and Fillmore put its estimate at $158,000. “The storm hit most of the county, but Simi Valley and Moorpark escaped with little damage,” said Wendy Haddock, county assistant director of emergency services.

* American Red Cross officials expected more than 200 refugees from the storms to seek shelter at the Oxnard National Guard Armory, the gymnasium at De Anza Middle School, and the Santa Paula Community Center. Red Cross damage assessment teams planned to help residents size up the cost of damage today.

* Sporadic showers on Wednesday dropped about an inch or less of rain in the mountains and other places. The rain gauge in the upper Ojai Valley measured more than 22 inches of rain since the series of storms began Jan 3. Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley measured about nine inches, as did points on the Oxnard Plain. County officials reported rainfall 2 1/2 times normal for this point in the season and said Tuesday’s storm created the worst flooding since 1968. Average county rainfall has already received as much rain as is normal for an entire year.

* Local emergency officials urged anyone with storm damage to call a toll-free hot line (800) 462-9029 to apply for disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As a federal disaster area, individuals and businesses with losses in the county may qualify for low-interest loans, individual and family grants, and assistance to pay for unemployment and temporary housing. Officials are considering opening a disaster application center in the county, but have not decided if it should be located in one place or be moved among hard-hit areas.

President Clinton, who declared Ventura County and virtually half the state disaster areas, expressed his solidarity with suffering residents in a message Wednesday from Washington:

“Californians have proven over the last few years they have a very resilient spirit, and a great sense of community,” he said. “With the earthquakes and the fires, you have shown that you’re a people who can come together in times of crisis, and overcome those crises.”

As the floodwaters receded, crews began to clear away mud and debris throughout Ventura County on dozens of roads that remained closed.

Butch Britt, deputy director of the county’s public works agency, said it is too early to tell how seriously the roads and bridges were damaged beneath all the muck.

“We’ve had some structural damage to some of the roads with the washouts,” Britt said. “It’s going to be a long-term effort to get it all cleaned up,” he said.

California 33 above Ojai remains closed, as does California 150, a highway that connects Santa Paula to Ojai and Ojai to Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County.

With rockslides blocking California 150, the Ventura Freeway was the only route north connecting Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Caltrans crews driving snowplows began scraping mud and other debris from the four northbound lanes early Wednesday. Caltrans crews also removed a 500-gallon propane tank that had washed onto the highway from the Ventura RV Resort in the nearby riverbed.

California Highway Patrol Capt. Mike Porrazzo said Caltrans officials wanted to open the freeway at 8:30 a.m., but he would not allow it. The lanes were still covered with a layer of slippery mud.

He said the argument was settled when he took a Caltrans supervisor for a test drive across the mud-slicked road in his cruiser and ended up skidding to a stop at a 45-degree angle. “If we open it, we’ll just close it again with wrecked cars instead of mud,” Porrazzo said he told the supervisor.

Hundreds of truckers and other motorists stranded in Ventura anxiously awaited the all-clear signal after spending the night in local motels or their vehicles.

“I checked out a couple of motels, but (the police) kept telling us it would open every few hours, so I didn’t want to waste the 50 bucks,” said Bernard Hartley, a San Luis Obispo carpenter trying to get home.

Ventura motels were nearly full Tuesday night with freeway refugees.

“We did quite well because of the closure,” said Delia Loya, a clerk at the Best Western motel on Thompson Boulevard in Ventura.

In addition to halting northbound traffic from 7:17 a.m. Tuesday to 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, floodwaters on the Ventura River also wiped out the homeless encampments in the river bottom.

Ventura City officials pounced on the chance to rid themselves of the thorny homeless problem, vowing to block any effort to rebuild the riverbed encampments.

Despite police patrols along the edge of the river, some of the estimated 200 river bottom dwellers managed to slip into the riverbed Wednesday to retrieve possessions that were not swept downstream.

“All I got was a radio and some clothes,” said Roger Alberto, 55, a Vietnam veteran who climbed through a barbed-wire fence to reach his camp in the riverbed. “Everything else was gone.”

Supervisor Maggie Kildee, who took a 90-minute helicopter ride to tour flood damage, said she saw that several homeless people had returned to their makeshift homes in the riverbed.

“While it’s in the city,” Kildee said, “any decision about what to do with the homeless will have to be regional or countywide.”

She suggested that county officials work with Ventura’s elected leaders to keep the homeless from moving back into the brushy river bottom. “I’m confident we can find some ways to deal with this.”

Kildee said she was surprised at the amount of erosion from the hillsides behind Fillmore and storm damage to crops. “There was lots and lots of mud,” she said.

Floodwaters continued to race down the Santa Clara River, but never caused any damage at the Bailard Landfill, as earlier feared.

And Calleguas Creek flooded some farmland, but did not inundate Point Mugu Navy base.

Navy officials placed timbers in two of its gates to complete a flood wall built to protect the base from Calleguas Creek, which overflowed Tuesday. But the floodwaters never reached the base. “We are all wiping our brows with relief,” said Capt. Tom Boothe, the base’s public works officer.

On Wednesday, Navy officials set fire to an old beach Laundromat, which was poised to fall into the crashing surf that had badly eroded the beach in the past week.

“It’s mainly to preclude it from being washed into the ocean and become more of a hazard,” said Boothe.

Elsewhere in California, thousands of residents remained evacuated in the northern part of the state as rain continued, raising the prospect of more flooding through the weekend.

Gov. Pete Wilson visited Malibu to observe Caltrans crews work on a foundering bridge.

“I have terrible concerns and deep sympathy,” said the governor, who later increased to 34 the number of counties listed as state disaster areas. “Your heart breaks for these folks.”

Some Malibu residents were virtually stranded in their upscale but decidedly muddy digs, as road closures cut off all but the most roundabout routes to the outside. The Malibu Lagoon Bridge remained closed, limiting access to some areas, but Caltrans crews were working furiously to determine its safety.

The death toll rose to three in Southern California, including the homeless man found in the Ventura River. The storm also claimed the life of a U. S. Marine lieutenant colonel in Camp Pendleton and an 11-year-old boy in Orange County’s Trabuco Creek.

State officials said five others have died in the last week in central and Northern California.

In Guerneville, north of San Francisco, one of the towns hardest hit by flooding, the Russian River remained eight feet above flood stage. Many riverfront properties were under water, but the flood had receded in most of the downtown business district, leaving behind a slimy layer of silt.

The National Weather Service said two more storm systems are moving east across the Pacific toward California, and while both are expected to bring more rain to the northern half of the state, Southern California should be spared.

In Rio Linda, near Sacramento, 150 houses were flooded and water in some areas remained as deep as 10 feet because nearby rice farmers pumped water off their fields to save the crop.

After sustaining their worst rainfall in history Tuesday, Santa Barbara awoke Wednesday to find formerly quaint State Street looking like a river bottom. Two cars were buried in the mud beneath U. S. 101. Beaches were covered with silt and debris.

By Wednesday, more than 12 inches had fallen in town, washing mud, branches, fruit and leaves down from the hills and onto city streets.

As many as 500 homes--most in the working class area of Santa Barbara’s lower eastside--were damaged or destroyed by the powerful onslaught.

“It’s sad,” said 4-year resident Theresa Comingore. “It’s sad to see that people who take a lot of time to take care of what they own destroyed.”

Caltrans crews expected to reopen part of the Malibu Lagoon Bridge by nightfall Wednesday.

The aged bridge, built in 1935, was scheduled to be replaced in the next year.

Some residents--accustomed to trying to get around barriers erected by both nature and man--found ways to commute to work.

Staggered by its financial problems, the county is unable to guarantee vendors and suppliers that it can pay for necessary repairs to flood control channels and other facilities, officials said. And without such assurances--in writing--many contractors have told the county they are unwilling or unable to perform the work.