Ventura County burn areas see little damage during storms

Rob Hayes Image
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Ventura County burn areas see little damage during storms
Heavy downpours, howling winds and cold temperatures blasted the Southland Wednesday, and burn areas in Ventura County saw little damage to homes and roads.

SOLIMAR BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- Heavy downpours, howling winds and cold temperatures blasted the Southland Wednesday, and burn areas in Ventura County saw little damage to homes and roads.

In Camarillo Springs, the scars of past mudslides were still evident. Homes became half buried under debris and Ventura County Fire crews kept a watchful eye for signs of new slides.

The video shot by Ventura County Capt. Jeff Pike showed muddy runoff behind the homes draining safely through city-installed avalanche fencing. The waters flowed into a storm drain.

"On an earlier wave that came through, we did have some of the water get around the debris fencing, but there was no damage," he said.

Another big concern in the northern part of the county was traffic on the 101 Freeway along the Solimar Fire burn area. Despite the heavy rains Wednesday, there were only sporadic, short lane closures on the northbound side. But other areas were struggling to deal with the downpours.

"We've had a number of flooding calls. At one point, I thought I saw 10 to 15 flooding calls up on the screen. That's residential flooding, it's businesses, places like that, that are experiencing issues due to the weather," VCFD Capt. Mike Lindbery said.

High surf also pounded the Ventura County coastline, and one surfer drawn to the beach and big waves quickly gave up after battling the tide.