Fierce Storm Continues Attack

The fiercest storm of the year continued to pummel Ventura County on Tuesday, forcing evacuations in Ventura and La Conchita, sweeping two cars into swollen creeks and sending water spilling over Matilija Dam.

Traffic was slowed throughout the county as cars slid across freeways and surface streets. Scores of minor accidents were reported by the California Highway Patrol and other police agencies.

In Newbury Park, one homeowner awoke to find a river of muddy water seeping into his bedroom from a nearby construction project.

Rain totals for the season, in some places less than half that of normal years, inched closer to yearly averages. Forecasters predict more rain through tonight, with lingering showers tapering off by Thursday afternoon.

“The mountains and the foothills have really been getting the worst of it, from 2 1/2 inches to more than seven inches in some places,” said Clay Morgan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“We’re a little on the wet side, but we’re holding up,” he said.

Flood advisories remained in effect throughout Ventura County through early today.

In La Conchita, where residents remained fearful of the cracked bluff looming above their community, homeowners were waiting out the storm.

Law enforcement officials were maintaining a vigil over the unstable hillside, which destroyed nine homes when it collapsed in March.

Although sheriff’s officials have not issued any evacuation orders, they recommended late Tuesday that a handful of homes be vacated because of the rock and mud running off the hill.

“We’re doing a knock-and-notice evacuation recommendation,” Senior Chief Deputy Chuck Buttell said.

“It’s just along Vista Del Rincon on the side of the street closest to the mountain, west of the slide,” he said, adding that about a dozen homeowners were advised to leave. “This is strictly in the interest of extreme caution.”

Late Tuesday, a county geologist had determined that the hill was in no imminent danger of falling, Buttell said. It was unclear how many residents chose to pack up and leave, he said.

Residents braved ankle-deep rock and mud gushing onto Fillmore Avenue and Vista del Rincon to beef up sandbags that had been placed throughout the area to minimize potential flooding damage.

“We’re not too concerned yet,” said Jean Kosztics, who lives on Vista del Rincon, where the destroyed homes were. “It’s been raining steadily but not too hard, so that’s good.

*

“Everybody has really been prepared for this,” Kosztics said. “But it’s a waiting game.”

Despite the daylong barrage of rain, most local reservoirs remained below capacity through Tuesday.

But Matilija Dam outside Ojai spilled over Tuesday afternoon, sending millions of excess gallons of rainwater into the burgeoning Ventura River watershed, county hydrologist Dolores Taylor said.

“It’s at about 22,600 [cubic feet per second],” she said of the river flow. “When we get up close to 30,000, we know we have to close the [Ventura] freeway. So this is nip and tuck.”

The owner of the Ventura Beach RV Resort at the mouth of the Ventura River voluntarily evacuated the 30 to 40 campers lodged at the park early Tuesday, fearful that once the river crested, the nine-acre park would flood.

“It’s better to lose a little revenue than a life,” park owner Tom Staben said. He and several employees worked into the night, sandbagging buildings and moving loose property to higher ground.

“If we aren’t 4 feet deep in mud [today], we’ll be open for business,” he said. “But it will take a week just to clean up what we have already.”

More than 40 recreational vehicles were destroyed or damaged at the park during severe storms in 1992. The county ordered the owners to install a flood warning system after that flood. Evacuations last occurred at the low-lying park in February 1995, said Staben, who has owned the park for about a year.

*

Meanwhile, sheriff’s crews responded to urgent rescue calls when cars plowed into creeks near Oak View and Thousand Oaks early Tuesday. But in both cases, the occupants were able to escape before help arrived.

“We’re just real fortunate,” said Deputy Landis Potter, who responded to Old Creek Road and California 33, where a car trying to cross San Antonio Creek was swept downstream before it lodged along the riverside.

“We contacted the car’s owner and he told us that everyone got out safely,” Potter said.

Rancher Bill Rice watched nearby as crews searched the edges of San Antonio Creek. “I don’t know how many cars I’ve pulled out of here with my tractor,” he said.

Deputies also scoured the area around a raging flood-control channel off Ventu Park Road after witnesses found a car submerged in Conejo Creek.

Rescue swimmers scanned the area for victims before that car’s owner reported that the teenage boy driving the car, as well as his passenger, had escaped unharmed.

In Newbury Park, one Blackwood Street resident awoke early Tuesday to the sound of his 10-month-old daughter wailing.

The homeowner, who asked not to be identified, said that as he swung his feet out of bed about 5:30 a.m. to tend to his baby, his feet squelched into the carpet.

“I knew something was wrong,” he said.

*

The muddy water had drained off recently graded land on the nearby Dos Vientos development, a 2,350-home project under construction at the end of Lynn Road.

Jeff Reed, the superintendent overseeing grading for Operating Engineers, one of two Dos Vientos developers, said a small retention basin had unexpectedly overflowed and backed up into a county-built drainage ditch.

“We didn’t mean for this to happen,” said Reed, who added that his firm’s insurance company would cover the $2,200 in damage to the man’s carpets. “We feel bad about it.”

Thousand Oaks City Engineer Gil Pableo said a small section of Lynn Road was also damaged by the flooding, which eroded the side of the roadway. But that part of the street is scheduled to be rebuilt anyway, he said.

In Ventura, city officials were closely watching the storm-battered Ventura Pier, which lost 420 feet of timber decking to powerful 12- to 18-foot waves earlier this winter.

Although the latest storm has not delivered waves that high, parks Manager Bill Byerts said he has nonetheless instituted a surf watch.

“We have staff down on the beach and the Promenade every day,” Byerts said. “It’s been pretty quiet, but you never know with these crazy storms. . . . It’s almost paranoia whenever the clouds roll in.”

Damage to the 122-year-old landmark--estimated at $1.5 million--is covered by an insurance policy. Before December’s heavy surf knocked off the end of the pier, it had been the longest wooden wharf in California.

Byerts said a report on how to proceed with permanent repairs to the pier will be provided to the City Council in a few weeks. “We are kind of laying out all the alternatives,” he said.

The rain caused hundreds of traffic accidents around the rest of Southern California, including an early morning spin-out on the Costa Mesa Freeway in Orange County that claimed the life of a 40-year-old Orange man, and a chain-reaction Golden State Freeway pileup that damaged a Range Rover driven by pop music star Barry Manilow.

In the San Fernando Valley, the most serious weather-related traffic tie-up was the localized flooding that closed a lane of the Simi Valley Freeway at Tampa Avenue for two hours.

*

Two middle school students and a bus driver suffered minor injuries and were treated at local hospitals after an afternoon collision between two school buses at Pico Boulevard and Beverly Drive in West Los Angeles.

Diana Munatones, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District, called it “a weather-related accident.”

But in Ventura County, some residents welcomed the inclement weather, cheering the dampness and devising outdoor games.

In Ojai, off-duty Ventura Firefighter Dave Mendoza floated handcrafted wooden boats down a culvert next to the bike trail at Libbey Park with his two young daughters.

“We’re just out here taking advantage of the rain so we can use our boats,” Mendoza said, sheltering Camille, 3, and Andria, 1, from incessant raindrops.

“They painted these themselves.”

Times staff writers Mary F. Pols, Tracy Wilson, Lisa Leff and Miles Corwin, and correspondent Paul Elias contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

*--*

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 2.20 7.55 8.92 Casitas Dam 3.98 14.02 15.77 Casitas Rec. Center 4.33 12.73 15.85 Fillmore 2.80 10.29 12.76 Matilija Dam 4.57 16.24 18.02 Moorpark 3.19 8.47 9.72 Upper Ojai 4.61 12.11 15.39 Oxnard 2.17 7.83 9.71 Piru 3.27 7.99 11.39 Port Hueneme 1.81 6.58 9.53 Santa Paula 4.06 8.61 11.92 Simi Valley 1.77 7.93 9.39 Thousand Oaks 2.48 9.00 10.15 Ventura Govt. Center 3.15 9.91 10.74

*--*