A CITY IN CRISIS : They Hit the Road for Safety : Refugees: Panicked residents able to pay $200-a-night for lodging flee to hotels in neighboring counties to escape riot.

The urban refugees gathered around hotel swimming pools and Jacuzzis in Orange and Ventura counties on Saturday, soaking up sun and wondering whether it was safe for them to return home to Los Angeles.

Frightened of the violence ripping their city, they had fled by the dozens to neighboring resort hotels, begging for space and snapping up every $200-a-night room in sight, hoteliers said.

Stacey and Fred Cohen of Hanock Park were among those who took flight. They said they nervously drove out of their upscale neighborhood Friday morning amid the sounds of helicopters and fire engines, carefully taking surface streets until they could turn onto the freeway to Ventura County.

The burning embers of Samy’s camera store two blocks from their two-bedroom house had persuaded the Cohens to bundle up their 4-year-old daughter, Lindsey, and abandon their home to the rioters.

“All up and down Beverly and La Brea, they were looting businesses,” said Fred Cohen, 40. “It’s only three blocks from our house.”

They grabbed important papers, just in case their house went up in flames, and checked into the Mandalay Beach Resort in Oxnard at a cost of about $400 for the three-day stay.

They weren’t alone.

Lu Fletcher, assistant manager of the 250-room hotel, said she heard from plenty of Los Angeles refugees.

“People had such a panic-stricken look on their faces when they checked in” Thursday and Friday, she said. “They said, ‘Please, oh, please. We’ll take anything!’ ”

Stacey Cohen, 42, who is 8 1/2 months pregnant, said she was glad her family found a room. The smell of smoke back in Los Angeles had made her sick, the phone lines were dead and the dusk-to-dawn curfew made her feel like a captive in her own home.

“Everything was closed, you couldn’t go out. You couldn’t get food. The supermarkets were all closed,” she said. “We’re not yuppie refugees. We’re just scaredy-cats.”

Nearby, the Cohens’ friends, Mark and Sandy Phillips, fled so quickly they forgot to turn off air conditioners in their home in the Fairfax District. They also left two cats behind.

It took two hours just to get from their home to Pacific Coast Highway. From there, bumper-to-bumper traffic made the trip slow going to Oxnard.

“To me the thought process was, ‘If they’re looting houses, I’d just as soon not be there,’ ” said Phillips, 37, holding his 4-year-old son, Michael, and 2-year-old daughter, Aryn.

Those who fled to Orange County said they felt the same way.

Long Beach resident Tony Pezze said he drove his wife and 2-year-old daughter to the Dana Point Resort after National Guard troops took up positions about a mile from his house.

As he relaxed Saturday in a hotel Jacuzzi, Pezze said he was glad to leave Los Angeles behind.

“There seems to be a borderline between where the tension is and where the tension isn’t,” said Pezze, who owns a rubber stamp manufacturing company.

Only about 25 of the 350 rooms at the exclusive seaside hotel were vacant and available to the riot refugees, said hotel General Manager Greg Champion.

Champion reported that callers said, “I want to get out of town. What can you get for me?”

Stuart Rutkin, president of the Garment Contractors Assn. of Southern California and a Mar Vista resident, said he was faced with the dilemma of leaving his manufacturing production facility in the garment district unattended to attend a seminar at the resort.

“We’re all concerned,” Rutkin, 44, said as he sat in a poolside patio chair. “We’re watching TV with one eye and trying to enjoy ourselves on the other hand.”

Ellen Grutsch, a 30-year-old retail manager from Brentwood, said she left home when she feared rioters could head her way. “When the police asked us to leave work, at that point I realized it,” she said.

Grutsch said she hoped to return home on Sunday. But, she added: “No need to rush back.”