Historic Ventura Pier Takes Another Battering : Storm: Waves destroy 420 feet of landmark. Damage is estimated at $1.5 million. High seas and debris close beach.

VENTURA —  A winter rainstorm pounded Ventura County with 18-foot surf early Wednesday, destroying 420 feet of the landmark Ventura Pier--the longest wooden pier in California--and scattering its large wooden pilings along the coastline.

The high seas and debris forced a tall ship to seek emergency mooring, led to the closure of San Buenaventura State Beach and resulted in a desperate late-night search for a missing surfer who made it to shore 10 hours later. The storm also contributed to several traffic accidents.

The 123-year-old Ventura Pier, renovated in 1993 for $3.5 million, had just reopened this spring after a $500,000 reconstruction caused by last January’s storms. City officials estimated Wednesday’s damage would cost more than $1.5 million to repair.

Despite the recent history of expensive repairs, Ventura leaders said Wednesday that the 1,958-foot pier, one of the city’s top tourist attractions, will be rebuilt.

“It is such a valuable asset to this city,” Ventura Mayor Jack Tingstrom said. “We will just have to find a stronger way to build it.”

While engineers and Ventura officials were inspecting the damage Wednesday, a surfer who ignored weather warnings risked getting pulverized beneath the pier, and large wooden pilings that had washed ashore slammed into a city worker as he tried to pull them out of the water. The surfer paddled to safety at the last moment, and the city worker, Byron Moline, suffered minor injuries and was released Wednesday afternoon from Community Memorial Hospital.

Shredded wood jutted out at the spot where the pier’s end was ripped away, and loose pilings swung over the waves from a collapsed 40-foot section. At least 22 horizontal support beams and 150 pilings were washed away, city officials said.

About half a mile down the beach, clumps of broken pilings and beams littered the sand like enormous stacks of firewood. In at least two places, whole sections of the pier had washed ashore.

“The majority of those pilings had been [supporting the pier] for over 120 years,” said Ventura spokeswoman Debbie Solomon. “Many of those are the original pilings.”

An $80,000 copper sculpture called “Wavespout” that had stood at the pier’s end washed ashore in two pieces amid a pile of rubble. City officials rescued it from the debris and plan to place it back on the pier after repairs.

Pilings were found floating in the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard and numerous other locations along the Ventura County coast. State officials closed San Buenaventura State Beach just north of the pier, and the southern Ventura coastline from the pier to Marina Park.

“There are people down here scavenging for wood, and we’ve had to kick some people out of the water,” said Steve White, the lifeguard supervisor at San Buenaventura State Beach. “We’re trying to keep everyone off the beach, but it’s hard.”

Keith Neary of Ventura was one of dozens of surfers who chose to risk injury in a sea of debris for the thrill of catching some swollen waves.

“We saw a huge [piling] bobbing,” said Neary, 21, still in his wetsuit after an afternoon of surfing at Faria Beach. “It went right through the lineup.”

The Hawaiian Chieftain, a 100-foot replica of a 1790s cargo vessel, was sailing to Ventura Harbor from Morro Bay on Tuesday night when it encountered stiff winds and powerful waves. The crew endured a long and difficult night at sea, said Ian McIntyre, the ship’s captain.

“It was quite windy,” McIntyre said. “Obviously, when we got to Ventura we knew we were not going to try to get into that harbor. It was pretty dramatic to be out there during those swells.”

The Hawaiian Chieftain radioed the Port of Hueneme, a commercial harbor, and was granted refuge Wednesday morning. It will try to enter Ventura Harbor today, McIntyre said.

Potent as the waves were Tuesday night, Ventura County could have been hit much harder, said forecaster Rea Strange of Pacific Weather Analysis in Montecito.

Because this week coincides with the neap tide--a weaker tide occurring during the first and third quarters of the moon--the swells were not as huge as they would have been two weeks from now, Strange explained.

“That’s probably the luckiest thing about this whole event,” Strange said. “We’re in neap tides right now. If this had happened two weeks from now, all hell would be breaking loose. You would be seeing a lot of damaged houses.”

The storm formed Saturday in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Kamchatka, Siberia. It intensified and swirled across the sea to Northern California, where it caused widespread damage before moving south.

In Carpinteria, waves flooded about a half-dozen seaside homes along Sandy Land Road, but no injuries were reported, authorities said.

“When these big waves from the storm came in, the water went right into the ground floor,” said Pat Hammond of the Carpinteria Fire Department. “The people were flooded out, but they were never evacuated, and they were never in too much danger.”

In the seaside community of La Conchita, residents are concerned that the latest rains--coupled with another storm system expected to hit Ventura County on Friday--could cause the hillside to crumble once again. On Wednesday, homeowners dug drainage ditches and erected sandbag walls to protect their property.

“Naturally, we are worried about a mudslide,” said Christine Kinsey, 28, who recently moved to La Conchita from Seattle. “We’ll probably pack up and go if it keeps raining.”

The waves pummeling the California coast are expected to gradually decrease in intensity today and Friday, according to meteorologist Michael Most of the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Though Wednesday’s rainfall was relatively light, it contributed to traffic accidents around the county, including a wreck on Los Angeles Avenue that claimed the lives of three family members from Moorpark.

A second storm, expected to reach Ventura County by Friday afternoon, has lost some of its force, Most said. It is expected to dump moderate rain on the county, and keep low temperatures in the 40s, he said.

“It doesn’t look nearly as impressive as the previous one,” Most said. “Most of the rain will take place in Northern California.”

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writer Kenneth R. Weiss and correspondent Eric Wahlgren.

* RELATED STORIES: B1

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County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.98 1.33 3.14 Casitas Dam 1.66 2.38 4.98 El Rio NA 1.52 3.17 Fillmore 0.82 1.30 4.49 Moorpark 0.90 1.17 3.28 Ojai 0.84 1.54 4.38 Upper Ojai 0.75 1.75 4.70 Oxnard 0.61 0.96 3.00 Piru 0.70 0.88 3.60 Santa Paula 1.07 1.46 3.99 Simi Valley 0.45 0.79 3.05 Thousand Oaks 0.70 0.97 3.28 Ventura Govt. Center 0.98 1.79 3.36

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