Heat Blisters Inland Areas for a 2nd Day

By JASON TAKENOUCHI and PAMELA JOHNSON

Aug. 31, 1998 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Ventura County’s heat-weary residents flocked to the coast and other cooler climes Sunday as scorching weather besieged inland areas for the second day.

Simi Valley’s temperature tied a 1995 record at 106 degrees, while nearby Thousand Oaks also hit 106. The hottest spot in the county was Ojai at 107.

Temperatures along the coast were considerably cooler, but still unusually high. Oxnard peaked at 87, one degree shy of the record set in 1996, and San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura reached 85.

Forecasters expect a cooling trend to begin Tuesday, but that offered little solace to inland inhabitants who faced searing temperatures and a handful of minor power outages Sunday.

The sweltering weather sent Monique Dedinas and her husband from their Ojai home--which lacks air conditioning--to San Buenaventura State Beach.

“It was too hot to handle [Saturday],” she said. “We sat in the shade, hosed each other off and complained a lot.”

Across the county, the Simi Hills Golf Course was packed with people who braved the intense heat to enjoy their favorite sport.

“It was so hot inside my house today that I went outside and mowed the lawn to cool off,” said Simi Valley resident Richard Rodriguez, 34, who was packing golf clubs into a cart. “Anything is better than being inside my house.”

Nathan Celusta, a starter at the golf course on Alamo Street, said the facility was booked despite the miserable weather.

“This place has been nuts all weekend,” he said. “This town and the surrounding towns are filled with working fools. They’re weekend warriors. Regardless of the heat, they come here to get out of the house and away from their wives for the day.”

Mike Renno, 44, who was riding a golf cart with his 13-year-old son, Keith, explained, “This weather is only for golfing die-hards. We live golf. It’s never too hot for us.”

Still, others said the heat was a matter of perspective.

“I’m from back East where there’s 90% humidity,” said golfer Mike Towne, 46, of Simi Valley, downing a cold beer before his game. “To me, this is nice.”

At a pond in a park near the Simi Hills course, Tommy Dee, 49, of North Hollywood cast a fishing line while standing under a shady tree with his son, Justin, 11, of Lancaster and nephew Dominic Scamaldo, 12, of Simi Valley.

“I was fine sitting at home with the air conditioner turned on, watching the NASCAR races,” Tommy Dee said. “But the kids wanted to go fishing. I can deal with it in the shade.”

Juan Escobedo, 50, of Simi Valley, who was having a picnic at the Simi Hills park with his family of 10, said it was too hot even to play Frisbee.

“It works better as a fan,” he said as he waved the plastic disk over his face to cool off.

John Forneris, who owns Farmer John’s Fresh Produce at the corner of Alamo Street and Tapo Canyon Road, said the extreme heat has wreaked havoc on his vegetable and fruit fields.

“It burns the corn tassels and makes it very difficult for corn pollination,” Forneris said. “We’ve been getting corn with missing kernels and deformed ears.”

During the past few days, he said, he has been forced to irrigate his 40 acres each day instead of every third.

“We don’t like to see that happening because our water bills are high enough,” Forneris said. “It’s been tough, real tough.”

In Thousand Oaks, where it was equally hot, Justin White, 20, and his girlfriend, Kristina Towry, 18, both of Camarillo, sipped a large frozen concoction at a juice bar on Moorpark Road.

“This is the best thing we could think of doing in this ugly weather,” White said. “Go to the mall, find a shady spot and get something cold.”

High temperatures in the inland valleys also prompted Jackie and Dave Reynolds of Canyon Country to make good on a promise to bring their granddaughter to the beach.

“When we were getting out of the car she was saying, ‘Grandpa, it’s cold,’ ” Dave Reynolds said, his hands busy shaping wet sand into a water fort for his granddaughter.

Back home, he said, “It’s miserable outside. You can’t do a whole lot when it’s 108 or 110 degrees.”

His wife, a mail carrier, said the Ventura coastline was “heaven” compared to her home. “This is nice,” she said. “It’s like an oven down in Canyon Country.”

But not everyone got to play in the sand or hide in the shade Sunday.

Spurred by increased demand from retailers and businesses alike, workers at Conaway Ice Co. in Ventura took extended shifts to produce an estimated 30 tons of ice for Sunday’s customers.

“I’ve got almost my whole crew here today,” said company owner John Sullivan. “Everybody works long days.”

While keeping cool is easy in an ice factory, high demand has pushed workers to their limits, he said.

“The only problem we have is keeping up,” Sullivan said. “You can’t be everywhere at once.”

Southern California Edison also had problems meeting electricity demands over the weekend. Spokesman Mike Montoya said several areas, especially Simi Valley and other interior valleys, experienced scattered outages and brownouts because of overloaded delivery systems.

Jeff Hause, meteorologist with Wichita-based WeatherData Inc., which provides weather information to The Times, said the county should cool Tuesday and throughout the week, dropping a degree or two each day.

But it will remain unusually hot throughout the week, he said.

“You go inland a few miles and you’re toast,” he said. “I’d be headed to the coast if I lived out there.”