Ventura County Survives Another Storm

Thursday January 17, 2019

(Photo courtesy Ventura County Watershed Protection District webcam showing Matilija Dam overflowing)

For official information on evacuations and road closures go to: https://www.vcemergency.com/ 

For the latest rainfall totals go to: https://www.vcwatershed.net/fws/gmap.html 

For the latest weather information go to: https://www.weather.gov/lox/ 

Update at 1:30 PM Thursday---Copter 9 safely rescue three people from the Santa Clara River near Santa Paula who got stuck on a patch of dry land in the middle of the river.

Update at 1 PM Thursday--Ventura County Sheriff's Department--"As of 12:30 pm, there are no evacuations (voluntary or mandatory) in Ventura County. Our Emergency Operations Center has been shut down. Rain impacts have been minimal. Looking forward to some drier weather."

Update--The last storm in a series of storms that rolled through Ventura County during the past couple of weeks packed a punch but it still wasn't enough to cause any major disastrous problems in the burn areas, or anywhere else in Ventura County for that matter.

Yes, 5-7 inches of rain in the mountains above the Ojai Valley in a 24 hour period did make the Ventura River come to life and caused Matilija Dam to overflow and that flooded out a portion of the Ventura Beach RV Park and some other properties next to the river near its mouth in Ventura.

And there was a rash of rock slides, toppled trees, crashes, and other rain-related incidents around the county that briefly closed roads.

Highway 33 is still closed north of the Ojai Valley through the Las Padres National Forest because of rock slides.

But still, no major widespread damage was reported, especially in the burn areas.

Part of the reason was that most of the storms lacked high-intensity rain while others with high-intensity rain were brief and focused on one small area of the county causing problems with roadways rather than major damage to private property.

As of Thursday, every major reporting station for the Watershed Protection District is showing total rainfall above normal for this time of year except for two locations, Oxnard Civic Center and Thousand Oaks, both at around 80 percent of normal.

And now we have a week or two, at least, to dry out and recover from what problems did occur.