Out of the Muck : Disasters: Ventura Beach RV Resort residents fish through the rubble. They save what they can of homes and belongings caught up in flooding.

Joann Mecka came back to the Ventura Beach RV Resort on Thursday morning, hoping to salvage what was left inside the small trailer she shared with her husband and two friends.

But everything was covered in a sea of mud that swept down the Ventura River and through the park Wednesday. And with no insurance, Mecka said she has no idea how she will get enough money to start over.

“We just don’t know where to turn right now,” said Mecka, with tears in her eyes.

Hard-luck tales abound at the RV resort where about 50 families who lived there year-round were left homeless in one of the worst floods to hit Ventura County since 1969. Many of the residents had been struggling to make ends meet even before the disaster.

Shortly after sunrise on the cool but sunny morning, the residents--who were allowed to stay for free at a nearby hotel Wednesday night--started their trek back to the park to search for the belongings Mother Nature left behind. There was very little to be recovered.

Most of the trailers that had not washed out to the ocean were coated with mud, inside and out. A few bicycles were wedged in the muck, which was knee-deep in some places.

Battered cars and soggy mattresses littered the lot.

It was quiet at the park, except for the occasional whine of wheels spinning. Residents, many wearing borrowed galoshes, trudged through the brown ooze and puddles. A few large carp and crawdads were found swimming in the sludge.

“I’ve got my dinner for tonight,” said Daryle Helmer, who found a large fish in a puddle next to his ruined $180,000 mobile home. The carp, he said, was about all he had.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the park, Judy Dixon, and her husband, J.R., stood by helplessly as their trailer was towed from the mud.

The couple had just given up an apartment in Ventura and moved to the park where the rent is about $480 a month, as a way of saving money.

“Now everything’s gone,” said Judy Dixon. “We’re just devastated. We have no insurance, nowhere to live.”

Added J.R. Dixon: “We’ll just have to find a way to keep going.”

One of the only things that was not destroyed on the Dixons’ lot was someone else’s picnic table, which still had a tablecloth and several flowering plants in pink plastic pots. Apparently, Judy Dixon said, it had been swept across the park by the rushing water and came to rest next to the couple’s water-logged trailer.

Dixon said she figured that it was a good sign. She said she planned to take the plants to her next home.

“I’ve started over before,” she said. “I’ll start over again.”

Officials estimate that about 110 people in 66 trailers were in the park at the time of the flood. Many people had to be evacuated by helicopter when the floodwaters rose so quickly that they could not get out of the riverbed. Only a few were able to escape with their belongings before the water rose.

Scott and Shirley Sessberg-Baker, visiting from Las Vegas, were two of the lucky ones. They got out unscathed, escaping with about 15 seconds to spare.

“When I drove over the bridge (of the Ventura River), I thought it was shaking,” said Scott Sessberg-Baker. “Then I realized it was me who was shaking.”

The couple said they returned on Thursday to see if anyone in the park needed help.

“I feel bad for the people who live here all the time,” Scott Sessberg-Baker said. The residents not only lost their belongings, but also their tight-knit neighborhood.

The permanent residents at the park had referred to themselves as the “29ers,” because under California code they can only live at the park for 29 days in a row. Most residents move out of the park for one day after they’ve exhausted their time limit, and then they move back.

“It’s a community within itself,” said Patti Bell, who was living with Mecka. “Everyone is very close.”

She said she and her husband had their wedding at the park two years ago. “It’s like a family here,” she said.

And despite the flood, many residents said they would like to live in the park again. They said it provides the only affordable housing they can find, as well as a good place to make friends.

“The economy stinks,” said Bell, adding that many of the residents are struggling construction workers. “We can’t afford the homes we build.

“It’s sad. Where do we go from here?”

Road Closures A few roads in Ventura County remained closed due to flooding and mudslides as of 5:20 p.m. Thursday:

WEST COUNTY

Southbound Ventura Freeway off-ramp at West Main Street in Ventura closed.

Northbound Ventura Freeway on-ramp at West Main Street in Ventura.

Northbound Ventura Freeway off-ramp at State Beaches exit in Ventura closed.

NORTH COUNTY

Northbound California 33 closed at Wheeler Gorge Campground.

California 126 closed from California 23 and 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.

County Rainfall

Here are rain statistics from 5 p.m. Wednesday to 5 p.m. Thursday 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 Wednesday since Oct.1 to date Camarillo 0.39 12.46 8.35 Casitas Dam 1.02 18.45 14.62 El Rio 0.39 12.49 9.34 Fillmore 0.47 15.69 11.83 Moorpark 0.51 14.32 9.07 Ojai 0.83 19.07 13.13 Upper Ojai 1.18 21.67 14.17 Oxnard 0.28 13.06 9.00 Piru 0.51 16.25 10.60 Port Hueneme 0.28 12.79 8.84 Santa Paula 0.55 16.53 11.01 Simi Valley 0.71 15.28 8.74 Thousand Oaks 0.67 16.50 9.43 Ventura Govt. Center 0.35 13.27 9.95