But overall Finley noted the storm “was a nice steady rain over a fairly long period of time…we haven’t received any reports of damage that I’ve heard about and I don’t know if Santa Paula Creek even elevated.”The specter of large amounts of rain are especially troubling this season in the wake of the Day Fire, which burned more than 160,000 acres through the Santa Clara River Valley from Los Angeles County to above Santa Paula.About 33 percent of the local watershed was destroyed in the fire with the parched earth providing few chances of allowing the rain to absorb…runoff from rain events is expected to be 20 percent or more in the affected watershed areas.Finley noted that the city has been prepared for major rain events and done prep work on city drains and other infrastructure in anticipation of storms: “We’ve been hoping it would rain now for months,” he noted.The forecast Monday was 40 percent chance of showers later in the day with a 50 percent chance thereafter through Tuesday.
Weekend storm brings more than 2 inches of rain to Santa Paula
January 31, 2007
Santa Paula News
What was supposed to be a light rain storm turned into more, more than 2 inches in fact, with more likely to come, according to the National Weather Service.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesWhat was supposed to be a light rain storm turned into more, more than 2 inches in fact, with more likely to come, according to the National Weather Service.The overnight storm brought 2.03 inches of rain to Santa Paula over the weekend, the wet stuff hitting especially hard at about 2 a.m. Sunday.But the storm still left Southern California well short of the average for the year…in Santa Paula the total is still shy of 4 inches for the season.The overall gentle nature of the weekend storm didn’t bring any problems to the city according to Public Works Director/City Engineer Cliff Finley.“We got a nice, steady comfortable rain, it was really good,” except for leaks at City Hall in the Administration portion of the building including the City Council offices and the City Manager’s Conference Room.
