Storm Sends Quake Victims Searching for Makeshift Cover : Weather: People in Fillmore and Simi Valley grab plastic to protect damaged homes and belongings. Two oil spills are worrisome.

By JOANNA M. MILLER

Jan. 25, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Earthquake victims in Fillmore and Simi Valley covered their belongings and damaged homes with plastic and tarps as rain began falling Monday night in Ventura County with showers expected to linger through this morning.

Simi Valley hardware stores reported brisk sales of plastic and other waterproof covering materials as owners of damaged properties sought to plug holes inflicted by last week’s earthquake. Crews worked through the day in Fillmore to protect buildings against wet weather.

The wet storm that originated in the Gulf of Alaska also brought winds and colder temperatures, with nighttime lows Monday night and tonight expected to dip into the low 30s inland and into the 40s along the coast. Daytime temperatures should reach into the 50s and low 60s.

But after this morning’s scattered showers, forecasters said skies are expected to clear, bringing a return to warmer temperatures Wednesday. No further rain is expected later this week, meteorologists said.

The city of Fillmore placed huge rolls of clear plastic sheeting at St. Francis Catholic Church, where residents were snipping off sections early Monday to prepare for the rain. The city also provided nails and wooden strips for residents to secure the plastic sheeting.

The city’s two emergency shelters were full with about 300 people on Saturday night, when rain was forecast but did not materialize, said Bob Buckles, Fillmore evacuation center supervisor. He said up to 1,000 people were expected in the shelters Monday night.

But he said the city and the Red Cross were planning to bring in extra tents or drape tarps around an outdoor area at Fillmore Middle School to accommodate any overflow.

“We’re about out of indoor facilities,” Buckles said. “We’ll have to start putting them outdoors. We definitely do not want to turn people away.”

In Simi Valley, the emergency shelter at Royal High School has been providing beds for about 100 people, and more were expected Monday night. However, shelter operators said the building’s capacity is 350 people.

Hugh Darby, manager of the Federal Emergency Management Agency center in Simi Valley, said the chilly and wet weather provided an extra incentive to move people quickly through the aid application process.

“We’re moving people as fast as we can every day, but (the impending storm) is a factor,” he said. “It gets cold at night.”

Hardware stores were selling hundreds of tarpaulins, sheets of plastic and other makeshift repair materials, employees said. At the Holiday Hardware store on Tapo Street, customer Steve Cherry said his Simi Valley condominium had suffered major damage, forcing him, his wife and infant daughter into a motel.

After the quake, “the rain doesn’t scare me,” he said. “So things get a little wet. So what? It’s all got to be replaced anyway.”

Larry Kerr was among many Simi Valley residents whose homes sustained major damage. On Monday, he and his son were covering the house with sheets of orange plastic.

“We’re just trying to keep this thing as livable as possible,” he said. “We’re just trying to cope.”

The coming rain also caused concern for crews working to clean up an oil spill along 12 to 15 miles of the Santa Clara River east of Piru. They feared that the contamination from the remaining oil could spread if heavy rain pushes it downstream.

More than 500 people were working on the spill Monday. More than 600 fish and at least 20 birds and other animals have died so far. Another 22 birds, as well as a pond turtle and a Western toad, were found alive but coated with oil.

California Department of Fish and Game officials said the agency may increase the estimate of oil spilled above the original 168,000 gallons after its investigation is complete.

At the same time, Arco, parent company of Four Corners Pipeline, reduced its estimate of oil recovered to 58,000 gallons after an analysis of material vacuumed up from the river.

“There is still a lot of oil in the river,” said Reed Smith of the Fish and Game Department. “It will take weeks to clean this up.”

But he said that if rainfall in the area is limited to half an inch to an inch as forecast, the ground should be able to absorb the water and prevent the oil from being pushed further downstream.

The rain could also raise the water level at tiny McGrath Lake, where an oil spill discovered on Christmas Day coated the lake and surrounding wetlands with heavy crude.

Richard Rojas, chief ranger for the California State Parks Channel Coast District, said the rain could damage more vegetation as the “bathtub ring” of oil that clings to the edges of the lake moves up.

His department is working with Fish and Game officers to determine how to remove any remaining oil from the bottom of the lake.

County engineers said the rainfall was not expected to be heavy enough to trigger mudslides in areas stripped of soil-holding vegetation after last October’s wildfires.

“I would expect the rainfall to be absorbed into the soil,” said John Weikel, senior engineer for the Ventura County Flood Control Department.

But even a light rain is an unwelcome visitor for Ramona Logan, whose Fillmore home was left uninhabitable by the quake. She and her 6-year-old daughter have been sleeping in a borrowed motor home.

“This rain just makes it a whole lot harder,” she said.

Times staff writer Daryl Kelley and correspondents Maia Davis and Scott Hadly contributed to this article.

County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control District for the 24-hour period ending 9 p.m. Monday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo .39 2.40 6.53 Casitas Dam .55 4.05 11.09 El Rio .00 2.62 7.06 Fillmore .55 3.04 9.09 Moorpark .35 2.45 7.00 Ojai .59 3.36 9.84 Upper Ojai .59 4.05 10.52 Oxnard NA NA 6.78 Piru .24 2.63 8.08 Santa Paula .43 3.16 8.34 Simi Valley .31 2.74 7.18 Thousand Oaks .39 2.94 6.58 Ventura Govt. Center .28 2.83 7.51

NA--Not Available