First storm: A little rain can distrupt power and traffic

By Peggy Kelly 

Santa Paula Times 

A little rain can go a long way in disrupting slick roadways and causing scattered electrical outages as the light shower that hit Ventura County proved Wednesday and Thursday.

The brief and not too wet storm, the first of the season caused just under a half-an-inch of rain that dripped on Santa Paula, a weather event that started Wednesday late afternoon as drizzle, worked itself into some short bursts of real rain and then reverted to drips and drops.

The scant rain brought the total for the rain year, which started October 1, to 0.076 inches according to www.spweather.net

Roadways throughout Ventura County were clogged with minor accidents, most attributed to driving too fast on roads covered with a mixture of rain and oils and other dirt accumulated over months of drought.

Santa Paula Fire Chief Rick Araiza said the storm caused firefighters to respond to “five incidents of wire arcing, but we did nothing other than report the pole number. 

“This was the first rain of the year and there was dirt that mixed with the moisture caused the arcing between the lines. There was no fire,” said Araiza, “just the arcing lines.”