BAY AREA QUAKE : Mountain Towns Laid Low by Quake : Damage: Devastation is widespread in hamlets near the epicenter.

The winding roads that snake through the mountains north of here are a tattered trail of destruction. Each turn seems to reveal another house reduced to rubble, another strip of asphalt ripped apart by the power of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake.

While the eyes of the world have focused on the troubles of San Francisco and other urban communities hit by the quake, the rural hamlets near the temblor’s epicenter in the Santa Cruz Mountains have largely suffered in silence.

And proportionately, they may have suffered the most, at least in terms of property losses.

Board for board and house for house, these small communities in the redwood-studded hills that ring the heart of the destructive earthquake have experienced greater per capita dislocation and property loss than their big city neighbors.

“I hope we don’t get forgotten. We are smaller but proportionately we were hit very hard,” said Karen McNally, geophysics professor at UC Santa Cruz and director of the Charles F. Richter Seismology Laboratory.

In the enclave of Zayante 10 miles north of Santa Cruz, up to 85% of the houses have suffered structural damage and more than 200 are uninhabitable, said Chief Ken Boynton of the area’s fire protection district.

“We had 20 or 25 where the whole house was reduced to a pile of kindling wood,” Boynton said. “When is it going to get back to normal up here? Oh, 1991, maybe ’92.”

Elsewhere along the ridges the story is the same.

Fifteen expensive houses collapsed in the hills above Scotts Valley, while 60 more were severely damaged in Boulder Creek. To the east, 26 of the 100 houses authorities have surveyed in the small community of Corralitos sustained major damage.

Residents of Redwood Estates, a cluster of 350 homes just five miles from the quake’s epicenter, saw seven houses completely flattened, while another 45 were knocked off their foundations.

At Loma Preita, a community of 3,000 even nearer the heart of the earthquake, officials estimate that two-thirds of the houses suffered structural damage ranging from tweaked floorboards to being demolished. Four others were lost to fires.

“There’s houses down all over the summit,” said Nasario Martinez, whose own house just off California 17 survived the earthquake. “I’ve heard we may not have water for a month or two.”

A few miles away, Leta Frye bemoaned the loss of her $500,000 house, which was wrenched off its foundation and split in two by the awesome might of the temblor. Frye figures she will have to rebuild from the ground up.

“Part of my house is down like shredded match sticks,” said Frye, who has resorted to sleeping in her car outside the shattered residence. “My husband was in Washington on business. He asked over the phone if we should maybe put plastic over the holes to keep rain out. I just said, ‘Bill, you don’t get the picture yet.’ ”

Norman and Ruth Lee returned home to find their two-bedroom house in Lompico, a tiny cluster of houses in the hills 10 miles north of Santa Cruz, leaning precariously after it spun five feet off its foundation. The earthquake turned the house’s redwood plank siding into confetti and ripped out all of the utility lines.

But like many mountain people, the couple refuse to be beaten by the earthquake. They plan to rent a recreational vehicle, park it in front of the lot and then rebuild from scratch. In the meantime, they are sleeping in a shed on cushions from their chaise lounges.

“People here are pretty independent,” said Ruth Lee, a computer software program analyst. “They’d rather sleep in their trucks or campers and stay around their homes than go to some shelter.”

Tent villages have sprouted in public parking areas in several of the communities, while some residents have chosen to camp out next to their homes.

Many roads have become nearly impassable since the earthquake jostled rocks loose. The tough driving conditions could get even worse if a rainstorm sweeps into the area, prompting mudslides.

In Redwood Estates, some residents whose houses were damaged are talking of pulling out for a few days if the rain that threatened Friday materializes over the weekend. “Lots of people are loading up their stuff,” said J.J. Martin, whose house survived with only a toppled chimney. “If it begins to rain, they’re going down to stay with relatives.”

But Martin predicted that nearly all would be back. “They’ll bulldoze then they’ll start over,” she said. “I don’t know many that will be scared off by this earthquake.”