Rain to Go Away, Return Another Day and Another

The first of three incoming storms hit Ventura County early Thursday, causing two serious traffic accidents in Thousand Oaks and knocking out power in east Ventura.

“People certainly won’t have to be watering their lawns over the next few days,” said Gary Ryan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Forecasters are calling for sunny skies today, but another storm expected Saturday may dump an inch of rain on the county.

Then, following a brief break, one of the winter’s biggest storms is expected to reach Southern California on Tuesday, forecasters say.

So far, dire predictions of El Nino-driven storms have not come true. On Thursday, about three-quarters of an inch of rain fell around the county.

But streets could become flooded Tuesday, as the string of storms builds to a peak, forecasters said.

Thursday’s early-morning showers, meanwhile, caused their share of damage.

In Thousand Oaks, two accidents on the Ventura Freeway sent four people to Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

The first crash happened shortly before 5 a.m., when George Sprowl, a 61-year-old Santa Barbara man, lost control of his Lexus in the southbound lane of the rain-soaked freeway.

The car veered off the freeway and into a ditch near Lynn Road, injuring two passengers, also from Santa Barbara--Jack Rogers, 71, and Mary Strait, 58.

An emergency rescue team cut off the car’s roof to get everyone out, California Highway Patrol Officer Dave Cockrill said.

Rogers suffered severe head and chest injuries, and Strait sustained broken ribs and cuts. The driver was being treated for neck pain, the CHP reported.

About an hour later, a woman who was also heading southbound on the Ventura Freeway lost control of her car, skidded off the road and slid down an embankment near Wendy Drive.

The woman, whose name was not released, was treated for minor injuries at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, the CHP said.

In all, the CHP responded to 14 accidents in Ventura County between 2 and 9:45 a.m.--twice the normal rate, Cockrill said.

Across the county in Ventura, many residents awoke to a power outage.

About 3,800 Southern California Edison customers in east Ventura lost their electricity about 6 a.m. Most saw power return within a minute, but about 800 residences remained without electricity as late as Thursday afternoon.

An Edison spokeswoman said a downed wire near Telephone Road and a damaged conductor near Montgomery Avenue may have caused the power failure.

Daytime temperatures in the 60s are expected across the county during the next few days, with temperatures dipping into the 50s on Saturday and Tuesday, when storms are expected to hit.

In the meantime, heavy surf continues to hit Ventura County beaches.

The National Weather Service reported waves as high as 8 feet Thursday and a heavy surf advisory remains in effect.

Correspondent Dawn Hobbs 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 6 p.m. Thursday. 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 0.55 11.19 7.11 Casitas Dam 1.22 14.78 12.30 Casitas Rec. Center 1.18 15.86 12.18 Fillmore 0.63 13.19 9.86 Matilija Dam NA 15.24 13.50 Moorpark 0.63 12.09 7.66 Ojai 0.90 13.58 10.79 Upper Ojai 0.91 14.80 11.56 Oxnard 0.67 12.39 7.45 Piru 0.16 11.42 8.88 Port Hueneme 0.67 11.53 7.34 Santa Paula 0.87 11.88 9.07 Simi Valley 0.47 12.09 7.33 Thousand Oaks 0.87 11.65 7.88 Ventura Govt. Center 0.98 13.32 8.25

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