Season’s 1st Storm Brings Usual Results

A driving rain pelted Ventura County on Tuesday, causing dozens of traffic accidents on slippery roadways and sparking a string of small power outages in the western portion of the county.

“It’s the first rain of the rainy season,” said Stuart Seto, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “And it is notable, because it is going to last a long time.”

Meteorologists said the storm could be the first of a series of weather systems stirred by the much-anticipated El Nino phenomenon.

The storm dumped more than 1 1/2 inches of rain in the Upper Ojai by Tuesday morning, while nearly an inch fell in Simi Valley and about half an inch soaked Thousand Oaks. Oxnard’s rain-thirsty fields got the least rainfall in the county, about a quarter-inch.

And meteorologists predicted this is only the beginning of a long, soggy week.

Three other storms--bringing more rain, bigger waves and stronger winds--are expected to wallop Ventura by Friday.

“It seems odd that this one is going to last six days,” Seto said. “It’s like, here’s your winter wake-up call.”

The storm triggered a rush on windshield wiper and umbrella purchases, and caused drivers to careen into each other on oil-slick roadways across the county.

Dave Cockrill, public information officer for the California Highway Patrol, said this is normal for the first storm of the season.

“People are driving at the same speeds as when the roadways are dry,” said Cockrill, who said there were 34 accidents by early afternoon--more than double the number of accidents on a normal day.

“They haven’t checked their tires to see if they have treads to channel out water, and they are hydroplaning,” Cockrill said.

Meanwhile, small power outages hit cities across the county.

In Santa Paula, a failed transformer left 517 customers without power from 8 a.m. until noon. In Ojai, a substation went down, leaving 6,000 customers without power for 30 seconds.

And in midtown Ventura along Thompson Boulevard, about 75 customers were left without power for several hours, according to Rudy Gonzales, regional manager for Southern California Edison.

Gonzales said the brief power failures were prompted by electrical shorts caused by dirt and other contamination that had built up on power lines.

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“The first rain is when we experience most of these,” Gonzales said. “Especially a hard, driving rain.”

There was minor flooding along Pacific Coast Highway in the early afternoon. Cars and recreational vehicles slowed to 30 and 40 mph on the two-lane highway’s sharp curves.

A small mudslide dumped rocks the size of toaster ovens near Mugu Rock. Surfers huddled in their cars, watching the choppy seas, but did not venture out.

The rains, however heavy, are not going to cause major flooding, said Robin Jester, a senior engineer with county’s flood control department.

“Because this is the first rain, the soil has the ability to absorb the water,” she said. She added that it takes saturated soil and intense rainfall to unleash flooding and mudslides.

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John Sherwin, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., said it is still too early to say if this particular storm is actually El Nino-related. But he added that a subtropical jet stream steered these storms into California just like in 1982-83, the last time El Nino lashed the coast.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of El Nino discussions in the next few days,” he said. “And it does fit into the El Nino pattern--but we will have to wait until the end of the season to see if it really is El Nino.”

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Times correspondent Veronique de Turenne contributed to this story.

* MAIN STORY: A1

* ENOUGH EL NINO

Don’t blame every spell of bad weather on El Nino. B5