Families Try to Cope After Homes Are Damaged, Destroyed : Toll: Mudslides, tornado wreak havoc on several houses but not residents’ faith in Southern California living.

One house already had tumbled and burned, and two more had sunk and cracked when police officers and firefighters went knocking on doors in the Mystic Hills neighborhood about 5 a.m. Monday.

“ ‘I really recommend that you get dressed, pack up what you can and get out of here because the earth is moving,’ ” Georgia Andersen recalled the early-morning visitor saying. “I looked at him (her husband) and he looked at me and you have that look, ‘Is it really as bad as you think it is?’ It’s the not knowing that scares you.”

Like her neighbors on the windy streets that surround the steep ravine where a mudslide destroyed three houses, Andersen quickly grabbed “just the things you can’t replace.” With her wedding ring, some baby pictures and 4-year-old son Stefan, she fled for a friend’s house, unsure what would remain when she returned.

Most of the 100 people evacuated from the slippery Laguna Beach hillside, where windows open onto the ocean, returned a few hours later, but several Orange County residents have been left homeless by the storms that ravaged the Southland this weekend. In addition to the three homes ruined by the Laguna Beach mudslide, a tornado in Lake Forest collapsed a garage and tore off a roof, and a landslide this weekend devastated a house in Modjeska Canyon.

“I used to live here,” said a morose Thomas Hitzel, 45, a few minutes before he, a few neighbors and Laguna Beach emergency personnel formed a human chain to remove precious items such as paintings and important papers, all wrapped in garbage bags, from the two-story Mystic Lane house that had crumbled in the landslide.

Miles away in Lake Forest, Sam Riela’s four-bedroom house on Tahoe Lane stood roofless in the rain as workers scrambled to temporarily cover the top with plywood. Half of Riela’s roof lay on the house next door, and the rest was scattered throughout the area.

“This is my dream home. I want to retire here,” said Riela, standing on the damp first floor of his house as water dripped steadily from the ceiling into plastic containers.

Many homes that were not destroyed were evacuated for fear that they would be the storm’s next victims.

More than 40 families in well-to-do Anaheim Hills were told to abandon their houses Monday afternoon in case of additional mudslides, and three other families fled homes in Modjeska Canyon, Red Cross officials said.

“We don’t know if we’re going to be able to go back tomorrow, or in six months or if we’re not going to be able to go back forever,” said Jeff Turner, a Downey firefighter who checked in at the Red Cross shelter at El Rancho Middle School in Anaheim before going to a friend’s house.

Disaster relief teams offered clothing and motel expenses to those forced out of their homes, as well as food for emergency workers and psychological assistance for those hit hardest by the storms.

“It’s just utter shock, and they’re totally overwhelmed. There’s tremendous apprehension and fear that my house might be next,” explained Newport Beach psychologist Jerre Lender, a Red Cross volunteer who counseled victims of the Laguna Beach crisis Monday.

“I had one lady who was afraid to go back into her house. She stood out in the driveway and said she could see everything better outside than watching it on TV.”

After police and fire officials went door to door with their warning Monday morning, about a dozen Laguna Beach residents sought solace in hot coffee at City Hall. Others waited for the Jolly Roger restaurant at the bottom of their hill to open at 6:30 a.m., but most simply took cover under the roofs of friends and family.

“I don’t think I’ve ever awakened so quickly or moved so quickly,” said Marilyn Garman, whose Vista Lane house overlooks the three that slid down the ravine.

On the narrow, hilly streets lined with Mercedeses and other expensive cars, many Mystic Hills residents spent Monday afternoon with their fingers wrapped around warm mugs, logs burning in their fireplaces, fielding phone calls from faraway relatives who heard about the mudslide on the news.

Despite the devastated house still smoldering below, those interviewed said they would not consider moving from the neighborhood where breathtaking views are paired with friendly folks.

“This is a religion, this house,” said Doris Arndt, who has lived on Vista Lane with her six children for 17 years. “We built it with our own hands--it was a miracle--we’d never leave it. If it slid down, we’d just rebuild.”

“I love Laguna, I love our view,” added Marilyn Garman, a 19-year resident of the neighborhood. “We’d stay here at almost any cost.”