Sierra Hwy. Residents Dig Out of Mud : Flood: The road suffered about $2 million in damage, and two bridges need a combined $600,000 in repairs in order to be passable.

Simone Boisseree has a hard time describing what her property used to be like now that vital landmarks are gone.

“This piece of property used to extend from here to. . . .” Boisseree paused for the right words while giving a tour of her front yard Monday.

“Gosh--I wish you could see where the wall was.”

The wall isn’t anymore, washed away by weekend storms that poured down on the northern part of Los Angeles County like an ocean through a sieve. A river, born where there was only a dirt path before, tore up roads and driveways and flooded houses.

She was one of the residents of a 12-mile stretch of Sierra Highway north of Sand Canyon Road in Canyon Country who dug their homes and cars out of the mud Monday and surveyed the evidence of the power of the storm.

“It’s just unbelievable what it did in just a few hours,” said Ramona Holguin, as a tow truck driver attempted to pull her 1986 Cougar out of a ditch. Her car had been swept more than 30 feet down the road Friday morning.

The storms that started last Thursday dumped 9.52 inches of rain on the area by Monday, according to the Newhall County Water District. Los Angeles County Public Works spokeswoman Donna Guyovich estimated that Sierra Highway would be closed to through traffic from Sand Canyon Road to Agua Dulce Canyon Road until March 15.

The road suffered about $2 million in damage, and two bridges need a combined $600,000 in repairs before they are passable, Guyovich said.

Boisseree blamed the county for creating conditions ripe for a flood by not maintaining the wash.

“The county has not come out to make sure that this wash is safe and that the debris had been taken out of it,” said Boisseree, whose four quarter horses were forced out of their stables by flooding.

But Guyovich said the county has never maintained the natural drainage channel and that, even had officials done so, it is unlikely that would have helped, given the power of the storm.

“The situation that occurred in the north county area is something that’s going to happen whenever you have intensities like this,” Guyovich said. “People choose to live in areas that are very undeveloped and that’s part of the beauty of it. But this is the other side of the coin, when we’ve had weather like we’ve had.”

Down the street from Boisseree, vehicles were washed onto their sides while others were encased in mud. Most homes are on higher ground and were spared, but the rains obliterated dozens of driveways, fences and corrals.

“The rain came down in a huge shower,” said Monica Ybarra, as she stood in her yard that ended in an abrupt drop at the edge of her property where the water carved out a 10-foot gully, closing Sierra Highway to through traffic.

“Actually, we kind of like it like this,” Ybarra said, not missing the more than 20,000 cars that usually pass her house each day.

Residents of Oasis Park, a trailer park off Soledad Canyon Road in Saugus, finally escaped to the outside world after a weekend of being trapped by floodwaters. After the park manager and several residents lashed two downed telephone poles together with rope to create a makeshift footbridge, inhabitants were able to cross the river that swept away the only road leading out.

“We had a back way out, but it got muddied up,” said Alex Hernandez, one of about 150 residents. “Our culverts were just washed aside, flipped up like matchsticks.”

Meanwhile, work crews and residents in the Antelope Valley were continuing Monday to clean up from the storm that battered the area hardest on Thursday and Friday. Portions of many roads, including several main roads to the San Fernando Valley, remained closed to commuters.

Jerry Jonnum, the assistant district engineer for the county Department of Public Works office in Palmdale, said the storm-related damage to roads in the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys appeared to be the worst in about 15 years.

In addition to Sierra Highway, Bouquet Canyon Road between Elizabeth Lake Road and Spunky Canyon Road remained closed to all but local residents because of washouts and mudslides. And a portion of Placerita Canyon Road near Sand Canyon Road also remained closed because of land movement, Jonnum said.

One widespread problem, Jonnum said, is that motorists frequently ignore “Road Closed” signs and interfere with county repair crews. Jonnum warned that motorists can be ticketed for the offense.

Meanwhile, city officials in Lancaster and Palmdale said their crews were working to clear mud deposited on streets by the storm. But both cities reported only minor problems over the weekend with flooding of houses and businesses.

Like many other residents along Sierra Highway who suffered storm damage, Don Jenkins views the upcoming storms with a measure of resignation.

“I figure I’m safe for now, because this gully is so deep, it can’t do any more damage,” he said as he cleared out a ravine recently carved out by the rains.

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