ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Hi Tyler and all:

Hey, I was just looking at the NOAA site and found a graph on the Ventura River's flow over the last couple of days...

http://ahps2.wrh.noaa.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=lox&gage=vrvc1&view=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1

According to their graph, the river ran at almost 8 feet at 11:15 last night, but then there are several enormous surges -- the first and highest at almost 29 feet at 5:45 last evening. (Another surge happened around 8 pm and a third around 1:45 am.)

Which led me to wonder, is this water that is being released from the lake? Does anyone know anything about this? I haven't paid particularly close attention to flood water management out of Casitas, but I found this both interesting and perplexing.

Any water gurus out there who could help me get what this is about?

Thanks,
Leigh

That's a pretty amazing graph. Below it, it says:

14.8 Ventura River begins to flood Highway 101 and Main Street Bridge in Ventura.

And it peaked at 28.99 feet???

Looks like that's either historical data or showing the marks on the graph, right? It appears we follow the lower blue dots from what it's saying the levels are today? Cause it says we're at 3.37 right now? yet the higher mark is over 25. Either way, makes me want to borrow a truck and head to foster park.
I heard people hydroplaned off the road in casita springs yesterday.

the high blue dots are evidently some kind of misprint.... if you click on those dots, you get transferred to a page that gives water level data by the quarter of an hour..... and the plus-20 marks are alternating with 5 and 6 foot marks at fifteen minute intervals.... so obviously some kind of error in the system.....

the highest mark in the last fifty years, according to info elsewhere in the chart, was 24 feet in 1969....

Yesterday as it was pouring I overheard some old-timers talking about the rains of 1969. That was the year that ten people died during a mountain rescue attempt in the SESPE. I will never forget that winter because I happened to be working at Live Oak School with the sole survivor, Scott Eckersley, who still lives in Ojai. What a happy moment that was when we heard he was alive!

http://www.sespewild.org/Sespe1969.html

Hello neighbors,
I noticed this morning while on the bike trail above the Ojai Valley Little League, the construction on the 33 has caused mud to slide onto the bike trail. The bike trail for about a hundred yards is unusable due to this mud cover from the construction area. Which agency should be notified for repair/clean up? I would like to be able to use my regular route again soon!
take care and thanks for all input!
Katie
Oak View

I agree with Comment #4 – the peak flows listed are almost certainly errant data. I was at the Foster Park Bridge this morning, and from the arundo and other debris lodged in the willows, it looks like the high water mark was somewhere around seven or eight feet.

Nevertheless, the rain was awesome! We measured 6.99” at our orchard in Meiners Oaks, near Oak Grove School. And during the peak of the event, it was raining at over one inch per hour.

On Thursday, I planted about two acres of cover crop seed (Namoi vetch, bell beans, and winter peas) in anticipation of the rain. That’s often a rain jinx (the opposite of washing your car), but not this time.

The Bike Trail -- from beginning to end -- is the domain of County Parks & Recreation, even where it passes through the City of Ojai. The immediate responsibility for the slide, however, rests with the person who recently prepared the site for building and didn't take any measures to prevent the slide. The ultimate responsibility for the cost of the removal of the mud and any repair, if necessary, of the trail will fall upon the property owner.

Thanks everyone, for your thoughts on the water flows in the river -- I thought it must be a mistake at first, but then convinced myself that NOAA must be infallible...

:-)

Appreciate you taking the time to help me find a clue...and for assuaging my curiosity!

All the best,
Leigh

Did anybody else experience the grand pleasure of having their backyard shed collapse under the force of the pouring rain?

Good times!

Concerning the dam at Lake Casitas, there is always question as to the water overflow everytime we have a good deal of rain. Just to let you know there is no way that water can be released at the dam. It is an overflow only, any water that comes from the dam has to spill over, it can't be released.