RV Dwellers Lose Homes With No Warning : Flooding: Most of the beach park’s 110 residents lost everything they owned. Some were able to drive away when Ventura River suddenly rose.

Nine-year-old Dana Hamblin knew something bad was going to happen because the horseshoe pits near her motor home were covered with water as she left for school early Wednesday morning.

Judy Tanck had the same feeling. So she trudged through the rain to the Ventura Beach RV Resort office to ask if it was time to evacuate.

“They said ‘no,’ ” Tanck said. “They said they would have plenty of time to warn us.”

That was about 8:30 a.m., the same time flood control officials notified park managers that water was rising in the adjacent Ventura River.

“I went through the park and it was OK. I walked down the riverbank and things seemed fine,” park owner Arnold Hubbard said. It was 9 a.m., and the water was still only ankle-deep.

Then the great muddy torrent that would sweep at least 30 motor homes and campers out to sea descended upon the park, rising an inch each minute until even eight-foot-high Winnebagos were submerged.

Lost to the current were all the worldly possessions of most of the park’s 110 residents. About 50 families had lived there permanently, drawn by rents beginning at $480 a month.

“We’re all strong-willed people,” said Mike Moffitt, 47, who had lived at the park with his wife and daughter for two years. “I wouldn’t call us Gypsies, but we’re a different breed.”

As the water rose, they showed their spirit.

“I heard people moving out, so I went out to see what was going on and the water was at my knees,” Moffitt said. “I knocked on my neighbor’s door to warn her, and suddenly the water was up to my chest.”

A helicopter snatched Moffitt from the top of a pickup as floodwaters rose within three inches of the cab roof.

Lisa Chinnock, awakened by the ruckus, said she had no time to panic because her trailer was already under water.

“I threw a couple of suitcases through the emergency exit on top,” she said. “I didn’t know how I was going to get out.” A helicopter scooped her up.

Art and Darlene Currier and their grandson Justin narrowly missed being trapped inside their 32-foot trailer.

The family had driven from Washington state in December so that Darlene, still wearing a neck brace on Wednesday, could undergo neck surgery at UCLA Medical Center.

“I awoke at about 9:15 and looked out the door,” she said. “The water was already lapping at the steps of the trailer.

“In the time it took us to get dressed, the water was up to the door,” she said. The Curriers waded out, and their grandson caught a ride on the back of a firefighter.

“We lost everything,” she said. “I don’t have a dime in my pocket.”

As residents struggled to escape--at least 10 moved quickly enough to drive their campers out of the mess--Ventura city firefighters arrived to direct the evacuation and rescue residents who had scrambled atop their cars and motor homes.

Circumstances changed so quickly that Fire Capt. Pat Farrell, who arrived when water was calf deep, quickly found himself hanging onto a pole to keep from being swept into the ocean, authorities said.

“I didn’t know if I was going to get swept away,” Farrell said after firefighters in a skiff had pulled him from the water.

Park owner Hubbard and dozens of residents, after knocking on neighbors’ doors, hustled to the high ground of a nearby road.

“There were 60 shells in here last night,” Hubbard said. “Thirty or 40 were washed away.”

Natalie Tierney and her fiance, Alonzo Bastillos, lost a Volvo and a camper in which Tierney’s children had slept.

“We watched the camper just float downriver,” Tierney said. But her trailer was still in the park. “That’s all we have left.”

From the nearby Main Street bridge, floodwater could be seen lapping over the roofs of a dozen trailers. A sheriff’s Hovercraft skimmed through the trailer park checking submerged RVs and cars for trapped residents.

By afternoon, the families had begun to regroup, notifying relatives and searching the park for belongings.

Little Dana Hamblin, who had grown concerned because of the flooded horseshoe pits, received a call from her mother at Loma Vista Elementary School.

“My mom just said that she was shaking, and I heard her cry,” said Dana, who had lived at the RV park for a year. The family trailer was washed away, she said.

Her father was rescued by helicopter, Dana said. But she said she was still concerned about her rabbit, cat and a poodle named Spuds MacKenzie.

“I think he got washed away,” Dana said.

“Dogs are real clever,” school Principal Diane Peterson said.

Judy Tanck, who earlier was assured that there was no danger of flooding, had left the park, as had her husband, Oscar, 47, an electrician on a temporary job in Ventura.

“When we went back, everything was all blocked off, and our RV was gone,” Oscar Tanck said. Missing was his week-old 37-foot Winnebago worth $85,000.

“I’m trying to see if I have anything to salvage,” he said, “or if I need to sit on the ocean (shore) and wait for it to come back in.”

Another resident scoured the RV park for his belongings, but found only his lawn chair.

However, the residents were lucky in a fashion. Some returned to find a thick layer of mud the only damage to their motor homes. By nightfall, a few had even driven their campers out of the park, Hubbard said.

Luckiest of all may have been Billie and Mel Garvis, of Lake Almanor in Northern California. They returned home to find their trailer marred only by mud covering the doorstep.

“I didn’t know anything about it until noon,” Mel Garvis said. “I was thinking we should have stayed in Lake Almanor.”

Times staff writers Collin Nash and Sherry Joe and correspondents Christopher Pummer and Caitlin Rother contributed to this story.

Storm Safety Tips

Red Cross officials have issued the following advice for dealing with the storms expected to drop more rain on soggy Ventura County:

* Emergency plans: Residents should have an evacuation route planned and store drinking water in bathtubs or other large containers.

* Crossing streams: Residents fleeing flooded areas should not drive across flooded roads or wade across a flowing stream where water is above knee-level.

* Watch children: Children should be kept away from flooded areas, streams or low-lying areas.

* No visiting: Residents should not visit disaster areas because onlookers could hamper rescue and emergency operations.

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 5 p.m. Wednesday from the Ventura County Flood Control District. Annual rainfall is measured from Oct. 1, the start of the official rain year.

Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location since Tuesday since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 1.61 12.46 8.27 Casitas Dam 2.83 18.26 14.45 El Rio 1.22 13.47 9.23 Fillmore 2.52 17.61 11.70 Moorpark 0.71 13.14 8.98 Ojai 2.09 18.24 12.97 Upper Ojai 4.02 13.74 13.65 Oxnard 1.65 12.86 8.90 Piru 1.54 15.72 10.49 Port Hueneme 1.65 13.39 8.74 Santa Paula 2.13 17.45 10.88 Simi Valley 1.46 14.82 8.65 Thousand Oaks 1.97 16.00 9.33 Ventura Govt. Center 1.54 14.64 9.84

Many Schools to Be Open

Virtually all Ventura County schools, except those in Ventura, were expected to be open today.

Ventura schools were scheduled to be closed for a teacher training day.

School officials throughout the county said they expected schools to be open, provided that weather conditions do not get worse.

Some schools closed early, and attendance was down Wednesday because of rain.

Road Closures

Flooding and mudslides closed roads across Ventura County as of 6:45 p.m. Wednesday:

WEST COUNTY

* California 150 open only to residents between the Ojai and Ventura freeways.

* California 150 open only to residents between Koenigstein Road and Dennison Park.

* Southbound Ventura Freeway off-ramp at West Main Street in Ventura closed for the night.

* Southbound Ojai Valley Freeway off-ramp at West Main Street in Ventura closed for the night.

CAMARILLO AREA

* Lewis Road closed between Potrero and Pleasant Valley roads and at Cawelti Road.

* Wood Road closed between 5th Street and Pleasant Valley Road.

* Las Posas Road closed between 5th Street and Hueneme Road.

NORTH COUNTY

* Balcom Canyon Road closed between South Mountain and Bradley roads.

* Piru Canyon Road closed north of Orchard Street.

* California 126 closed between Fillmore’s eastern limits to the Golden State Freeway. Traffic is being routed to California 23 and the Simi Valley Freeway.

* Guiberson Road closed from Piru to California 23.

EAST COUNTY

* Bennett Road closed at Tapo Canyon Road.

* Tapo Canyon Road closed north of the Simi Valley city limits.

OTHER AREAS

* Pacific Coast Highway closed from Kanan Dume Road to the Santa Monica tunnel.

* Pacific Coast Highway closed at Las Flores Canyon and Corral Canyon roads.