THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM: HOLDING THE LINE : Disaster Is No Stranger to Canyon Folk : Calamities: Those who choose to live in Las Flores Canyon have seen two straight years of flooding. And they can remember mudslides and other fires. But they keep coming back.

After two consecutive years of winter flooding, architect Skyler Brown and fellow tenants of a rustic Las Flores Canyon apartment building had spent recent weekends constructing a retaining wall with sandbags.

On Thursday afternoon, the sandbags were still in place. But their wooden, two-story building had been reduced to ashes by the Malibu firestorm.

“We were ready for the winter, but not for the fires,” lamented Brown, 42, as he sifted through some misshapen coins he had found in the ruins. “Nature can be merciless.”

For decades, denizens of the rugged, woodsy East Malibu canyon have lived through a steady stream of natural calamities.

Name a year and they can remember a disaster. 1970? Fire. 1985? Mudslides. 1992? Floods.

Name a disaster and they can name a precaution. Floods? Retaining walls. Mudslides? Vegetation. Fire? Stucco frames, tile roofs and clearing brush.

Yet in the end, Las Flores Canyon residents acknowledge, nature rules. And in the meantime, they say, they will keep returning as long as zoning boards permit it and for as long as the forces of nature allow it.

“It’s the natural beauty and the people here,” said painting contractor Steven Phipps, 41, after getting his first extended look Thursday at the gnarled rubble that was once his creek-side apartment. “I’d much rather live with coyotes in my back yard than prowlers.

“Besides, it won’t burn down again for another 10, 20, 30 years.”

William and Virginia Armstrong, who have operated the private Carden preschool and elementary school since 1965, said they plan to reopen with trailers as soon as a temporary bridge is built along Las Flores Canyon Road. The old wood-framed bridge over the creek bed that provided access to much of the canyon was burned in Wednesday’s fire.

“This is a rural, rustic, uncluttered area,” said William, 78. “We like it here and we own the property.”

Neil Elkins, 35, whose trailer home high in the canyon was scorched, said he would also return with a new trailer.

“I’ve been burned out twice and trapped on the other side of a landslide,” the Hollywood film electrician said. “But this place is wonderful. It’s the vibe, you know?”

As in any natural disaster, Wednesday’s firestorm proved fickle. On one hillside, a tile-roofed, stucco-framed home surrounded by only a smattering of shrubbery lay in ruins. The view across the canyon from what had once been the living room was of another house that made it through the fire unscathed. That house had a wood shake roof and a redwood frame.

On Las Flores Mesa overlooking the Pacific, only two of six homes along Sterks Way remained standing Thursday.

Octogenarians Bud and Christina Emerson were among those who had lost everything except their oceanfront view and a few pieces of china lying in the ashes.

“We were built on solid ground so the floods never fazed us a bit, except for the trouble of sliding down the road at the bottom in heavy rains,” said Bud, 85, as he sipped a beer provided by a neighbor whose house escaped damage.

The Emersons, who run a dry cleaning business in Pacific Palisades, fought with hoses to protect their house until it was finally overrun by flames. And they hope to rebuild.

“We have a fantastic view and we love the weather,” said Christina, who poked around the rubble with her cane.

And next time, her husband said, they will make it through if they have the two things that were missing Wednesday. “Water pressure,” he said. “And luck.”