Laguna Beach Braced for Rain of Terror : Disaster: Many whose homes survived the fire face almost certain flood damage in winter storms.

In some of the most inviting corners of this community, where homes perch on hilltops or nestle in canyons, residents now live with a growing dread.

Although their houses were largely spared by the October fire that nibbled up to their doorsteps and in some cases inhaled a single room, these families have had little time to wallow in relief. They are too busy looking skyward and listening to weather forecasts, searching for signs of the approach of a new enemy: rain.

At the heart of their concerns are hillsides that were blackened and stripped in the fire, creating the potential for mudslides, landslides and flooding. Some residents had a preview of how mean winter might be when a brief but battering storm pounded Laguna Beach three weeks ago, damaging two dozen homes and blanketing the downtown area with mud.

Since then, the fire chief has personally delivered notices to as many as 250 homes in hazardous areas warning them to be on “high alert” and ready to quickly evacuate if “significant” rain comes.

“The city came last week and said we would have more water here than we can imagine, and it would be our worst nightmare,” said Betty Barwick, whose Skyline Drive home backs to a threatening hillside. “We know we have a problem, so we’re just doing it one rainstorm at a time. . . . I’m up every night that there’s a slight chance of rain.”

Despite the army of workers who have scrambled since before that first storm to secure hillsides and keep storm drains clear, despite sandbag barricades and newly seeded hillsides, some residents still feel they are at Mother Nature’s mercy.

“Fire victims are relocated and starting their lives over,” said Barwick, who has cleared her own roof gutters and covered her windows with plywood. “We are sitting here saying, ‘Is it going to rain tonight? And then will we be starting over?’ ”

Some have already moved out of their homes. Others are ready to dash to friends’ houses at the first raindrop.

“I’ve got a place to disappear to in a hurry,” said John Rudolph, whose Canyon Acres home and rental property sit side by side at the foot of a bluff along Laguna Canyon Road. Having lost his hobby room to the fire, Rudolph now has arranged hay bales behind the houses, hoping to redirect the water.

“There’s no way you’re going to stop it--you’re just going to have to divert it and say, ‘You won, just go this way,’ ” said Rudolph, a building contractor for 43 years. “It’s going to be a challenging thing. You just wake up in the middle of the night and hear a couple rain drops and say, ‘Holy Toledo.’ ”

Sandy Lucas, president of the Laguna Canyon Homeowners’ Assn., said flatly that floods will come. The only question is when.

“Nothing’s going to stop us from flooding,” she told state Sen. Marian Bergeson and Laguna Beach Mayor Lida Lenney at a meeting Friday at City Hall, where they were reviewing erosion control efforts by the city, state and county. “We can dream all we want, but nothing’s going to stop us from flooding.”

William Lines, who owns the house next door to Barwick, said his tenant fled after the fire and the home now sits vacant.

“The flood damage is probably going to be worse than the fire damage,” he said, pointing to where fire singed the rear of the house. In the following rainstorm, 2 1/2 feet of mud filled the utility room and garage.

“What’s going to happen to the value of the property is up in the air,” Lines said, “but I’m sure it’s depreciating.”

It would not be the first time a natural disaster has imperiled homes and property values in this city. In January, after three weeks of steady rain, a landslide pitched three homes from their foundations in the Mystic Hills area, near Line’s property.

That reality adds another layer of uncertainty to how Laguna Beach homes may fare this winter, said Carol Forrest, an erosion sediment control specialist for Woodward-Clyde Consultants, a Santa Ana firm hired by the city.

“If we have a lot of short-duration, high-intensity storms, there will be problems,” she said. “We know that. I think the residents know that because they’ve dealt with them historically in the past.”

The firm has devised a variety of methods to lessen the potential for disaster. In addition to the hay bales and sandbags that are now fixtures in this community, six contractors are applying glue-like chemical treatments to the hillsides to hold the soil in place, “dry mulching” to help dissipate the energy of raindrops and seeding the landscape. That phase of work should be complete by Wednesday.

Hillsides receiving priority are in the Mystic Hills area, behind the Canyon Acres community, alongside Hidden Valley Canyon Road and north of Canyon Acres along Laguna Canyon Road.

In addition to prioritizing the areas of highest risk, Forrest said Woodward-Clyde has recommended that city crews be ready to move quickly into stricken areas to clear drains and evacuate residents. She said early warning systems also should be put in place. Officials say options include installing weather-monitoring equipment in danger zones.

But city Fire Chief Richard Dewberry said residents should not wait for a warning if they think they are at risk.

“If you’re not sure about something, you get out of there,” he said.

The city has made specific suggestions in some communities. For example, Canyon Acres residents, who saw water and debris push cars past their homes during the Nov. 11 storm, have been asked to keep vehicles off the street so water can flow freely down Canyon Acres Drive.

Marcia Marx, whose family narrowly escaped when five feet of mud filled their home on Browncroft Way behind Laguna Beach High School, has since moved. She says residents in questionable locations should not take chances.

“My advice would be for people in the area to think twice about staying there if they feel at all threatened that they might be flooded,” she said. “We could have lost a life, and nothing is worth that.”

In the meantime, Barwick, who once viewed the hill behind her with serenity and considered it almost “spiritual,” now eyes it warily. Her biggest fear is of being trapped on Skyline Drive, unable to get up or down. But she is not yet willing to abandon what for 24 years has been her home.

“There are all kinds of disaster scenes one can think of . . . I don’t know if it’s wise to stay,” she said. “It’s gonna be a judgment call each time it happens. But, believe me, it’s stressful, and I may change my mind in January. Or sooner.”