EARTHQUAKE / THE LONG ROAD BACK : Santa Clarita Valley Becomes an Island : Transportation: Collapse of overpasses leaves many in bedroom community stranded. Jammed trains or hours-long ordeals on choked side roads are main alternatives to freeways.

Fond of Western wear and their valley’s rich cowboy lore, residents here like to think of themselves as an independent lot, comfortably insulated from the problems of their infamous neighbor to the south.

But in the wake of Monday’s magnitude 6.6 earthquake, that coveted distance from Los Angeles has turned to isolation as the two main arteries south--the Antelope Valley and Golden State freeways--were closed with collapsed overpasses.

“We just feel so cut off,” said Linda Brader, who crowded into a Metrolink station Tuesday with her husband and scores of other trapped commuters, many of them sampling public transportation for the first time in an effort to avoid traffic jams and rumored six-hour trips Downtown.

Power outages and faulty phone communication also contributed to a feeling of isolation, especially in the first hours after the quake. But transportation was the overriding issue Tuesday as thousands tried to leave this mountain-ringed bedroom community for jobs “over the hill” and quickly discovered a downside to their suburban lifestyle.

At 11:30 a.m., about 150 people jammed a local Metrolink station hoping to catch a ride on a specially scheduled train, diverted from its usual route between San Bernardino and Los Angeles to serve the Santa Clarita Valley exclusively. Instead of leaving on a regular schedule, the train waited to fill up, frustrating first-time Metrolink users trying to understand the system and decipher schedules.

Many would-be riders, like the Braders, gave up because they were not certain if they would snare a seat on the train or when they would reach their jobs. Others, like Louisa Menick, braved the wait rather than face time-consuming traffic jams on service streets such as the Sierra Highway, which runs parallel to the Antelope Valley Freeway but became treacherous with rockslides after the quake.

“When we looked at the TV and it sounded like a five-hour wait (by car), it doesn’t sound like we have much of a choice,” said Menick, who works as a bookkeeper in Hollywood and lives in a spacious, Spanish-style tract house in Canyon Country. Like many residents of the Santa Clarita Valley, Menick and her husband moved there so they could own a home.

“I’ve always thought that this is a marvelous community. The problem is that to afford it, you have to work in town because that’s where the bigger money is,” Menick said.

More than half of the valley’s 160,000 residents commute to jobs in Los Angeles, according to Santa Clarita officials, who were trying to make the two-lane Sierra Highway a one-way route--south in the mornings and north in the evenings--to ease traffic flow.

Historically, getting from the Santa Clarita Valley to the San Fernando Valley has always been a problem, from the days of the Spanish Conquest to the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, which also sent parts of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways crashing to the ground.

The tenuous link between the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys evolved from a rocky Indian trail to a narrow hand-carved tunnel to its modern-day tangle of concrete.

On Tuesday, though northbound freeways into the Santa Clarita Valley remained open, the southbound closures reminded residents and relief workers of the potential for shortages of food, gasoline and medicine.

“Insulin is my highest priority right now,” said Donna Chesebrough, who was running a Red Cross shelter at Newhall Park, where 350 people spent Monday night. Many of those who sought refuge there and in other makeshift shelters Monday were the elderly, displaced from quake-damaged mobile homes and apartment complexes for senior citizens.

Theda Jones, 76, said she normally requires insulin injections twice a day but had missed two doses since the quake because the drug requires refrigeration and power outages spoiled her supply. She took her situation in stride, though, saying, “I figure I can do for a few more days.”

The urge to be with other people and leave home for a while drove many trapped locals to one of the few restaurants to stay open, The Famous Saugus Cafe, which bills itself as the oldest eatery in Los Angeles County. At lunch Tuesday, the cafe had a long line out the door and was packed with customers, including Canyon Country resident Ron Court, who was unable to get to his job as a film technician in Burbank.

“I wanted to get away from the house for a while and then go back and start cleaning up again,” said Court, who ate with his wife and their five children. “It’s a tough situation you have little control over. You just have to roll with it.” Some saw the freeway closures as an advantage in keeping out post-quake sightseers and potential looters. Sheriff’s Lt. Marv Dixon said Tuesday that there had been no arrests for looting and that reports of such crimes have so far turned out to be merchants checking on their businesses.

“I think it’s one of the prices you pay for living here,” said Santa Clarita Mayor George Pederson of the transportation difficulties, adding:

“Cutting us off when this happens does keep out the looky-loos.”