Rainy day brings evacuations, flooded roads

Torrential rainfall damaged homes, flooded roads and prompted overnight evacuations in Port Hueneme and Oxnard as a slow-moving storm drenched the area early Thursday.

Rainfall rates, which typically can cause flooding at 1 inch per hour, reached over 3 inches per hour as a thunderstorm swept up the coast, according to the National Weather Service in Oxnard. The agency issued a tornado warning around 1:30 a.m. and a flash flood warning minutes later.

Widespread flooding was reported from Oxnard, Ventura and elsewhere in the county. But the brunt of the storm damage appeared to be in the beachside city of Port Hueneme. Roughly 60 homes in a senior community there were evacuated overnight, officials said.

“We had just a massive amount of rain very quickly, and it overwhelmed our drainage system,” Port Hueneme City Manager James Vega said. “We had some significant flooding in areas of the city, particularly the area known as Hueneme Bay.”

As it happened: Evacuations, warnings to stay off Oxnard roads after storm flooding

Crews were working to clear drains and keep the water moving as the rain continued to fall Thursday, he said. A damage assessment also was ongoing. The city hadn’t seen anything like the early morning downpour since at least the El Niño storms in the 1990s, Vega said.

“This may even surpass what we saw then," he said.

Rescue calls swamp emergency lines

Firefighters were swamped with calls as the heavy rain fell across the Oxnard Plain and Port Hueneme areas, county Firefighter Andy VanSciver said.

County dispatchers sent crews to about 275 incidents in a five-hour period, starting around 1:30 a.m., he said. On a typical day, about 190 calls are dispatched over 24 hours.

When call volume peaked, roughly 90 calls were pending, VanSciver said. About 20 residents from the Hueneme Bay community were taken to an emergency shelter. The most severe flooding was 2 to 3 feet deep, he said.

Seven of those residents along with 10 pets – cats, dogs and a bird – were rescued with a tactical vehicle known as a MedCat. The MedCat was donated to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office earlier this year after January’s heavy storms, VanSciver said. The rescue vehicle, valued at around $350,000, was donated by Direct Relief, a Santa Barbara nonprofit.

About a dozen swift-water rescues were performed for people stranded in cars on roadways, VanSciver said. County fire crews along with teams from city departments in Oxnard and Ventura responded, as did county fire hand crews and sheriff’s personnel.

None of the water rescues involved cars going off the roadway into creeks or rivers, he added. He was not aware of any injuries or deaths attributed to Thursday’s heavy rain.

Downpour, flooding wakes residents

Around 20 Oxnard and Port Hueneme residents laid in cots or sat on bleachers in an evacuation shelter at the Oxnard College gym about 9:30 a.m. Thursday. It was unclear when they could return home.

Annika Hernandez, 46, and her family noticed heavy rainfall around 1 a.m. at their Port Hueneme home, but thought the storm would pass. They received an emergency alert around 5 a.m. but assumed the call was for other areas of the city.

That’s when they spotted flooding in the kitchen and garage. After moving five parakeets to higher ground inside the home, the family of four left to go to the shelter. With several roads closed because of flooding, the streets were clogged with traffic from others trying to get out.

“The roads were flooded more heavily than I’ve ever seen,” said Hernandez, who has lived in the area for over 40 years.

When Cecily Willis, 78, and her husband, 68-year-old Jack Schlonsky, woke up at 2 a.m., their Port Hueneme bedroom was under 5 inches of water. Willis said they should have left then, but they thought they could wait out the storm. The water appeared to be receding.

Just after 5 a.m., a firefighter knocked on their door and told them they needed to evacuate. The couple collected their dog and two cats and fled to their community clubhouse where they waited for a shuttle to the shelter.

'Surprised and sad'

The flood took her by surprise, Willis said. Living in Port Hueneme, she thought she was safe from most natural disasters.

“We were totally unprepared,” she said.

The shelter was expected to remain open for evacuees until they could either return home or find refuge with family, friends or at a hotel. The Red Cross said more people could show up as the storm continued Thursday and into Friday.

Port Hueneme resident Juana Lizarraga slept through the worst of the storm but later discovered the damage it left behind. The parking area of her apartment complex was filled with trash carried to the area by stormwater.

Landlord Chuck Rogers said the building sits above Bubbling Springs, a drainage canal that flows through the city to the beach. The channel overflowed and inundated the property, he said.

Before moving to Port Hueneme a year ago, Lizarraga had lived in Oxnard for 43 years. She had never seen this much storm damage, she said.

The flooded parking area had drained significantly by 8 a.m. but not before damaging cars. The doors and alarm on Lizarraga's car no longer work. She will likely have to pay for the repairs out of pocket because she has only liability insurance, she said.

“I’m surprised and sad,” she said.

More rain on the way

As of 2:30 a.m. Thursday, the tornado warning had expired without any tornado reported, authorities said.

Countywide, five-day rain totals ranged from 1.4 inches in Camarillo to more than 7 inches in Matilija Canyon as of 9 a.m. Thursday. That was according to preliminary figures from the Ventura County Watershed Protection District.

During the intense downpour, Port Hueneme recorded close to 4 inches of rainfall and Oxnard received nearly 4.5 inches. Oxnard officials said initial reports showed moderate flooding at homes in multiple neighborhoods throughout the city.

Authorities were still assessing the damage as of midday Thursday, VanSciver said. An estimated 60 homes in a five- to eight block area in the Hueneme Bay community in Port Hueneme appeared to suffer some damage, VanSciver said, mostly from flooding. Garage doors in the senior community were damaged due to the amount of water.

A nearby flood control channel was overwhelmed, he said, although it wasn’t immediately known whether there had been some type of blockage or whether the channel simply couldn’t handle the deluge, he said.

Local areas were expected to continue to get drenched by the storm though Friday morning. Spots could receive an additional 1 to 3 inches of rainfall, said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. By Friday night, the rain was expected to taper off.

To sign up for emergency alerts in Ventura County, go to readyventuracounty.org/vc-alert. For information about the storm, evacuation warnings and road closures, go to vcemergency.com.

Breaking news editor Gretchen Wenner contributed to this report.

Cheri Carlson covers the environment and county government for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0260. Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Rainy day brings evacuations, flooded roads