Little Is Calm After the Storm : Deluge: Record rains in O.C. caused millions of dollars in damage, left some homeless. Officials mount cleanup efforts.

Orange County began the painstaking task Thursday of trying to dry out from a devastating storm that assaulted the area with record rains, causing millions of dollars in damage, road closures, curtailed rail service, shattered marinas and extensive property loss.

As the sun attempted to peek out from behind overcast skies, 32 people remained homeless in two emergency shelters operated by the American Red Cross. The agency estimated that as many as 1,223 single-family dwellings in Orange County sustained damage, with fewer than 10% of the victims having flood insurance.

Throughout the county, Thursday’s scene was one of havoc and devastation from the storm and gale-force winds that struck the day before, causing the county to be declared a disaster area.

In Cypress, where 5.75 inches of rain broke a 1956 record and nearly doubled the county’s average for the month of January, Mayor Cecilia L. Age pleaded with state officials for emergency funds for what promises to be a massive cleanup.

Countywide, officials assessed the damage from ruptured flood channels alone at more than $3 million, while the Red Cross estimated more than $1 million in damage to personal property. At the storm’s peak late Wednesday, the agency housed 100 people overnight, with 200 others receiving aid. Another 300 got help during the day Thursday.

At the Leisure World retirement village in Seal Beach, 168 homes were declared uninhabitable. Officials estimated the village’s total loss at more than $2 million.

The situation may have been summed up best by Long Phan, 32, who said he did not carry flood insurance on his Garden Grove home, which suffered extensive water damage Wednesday night.

“It’s a disaster,” Phan said Thursday, gazing disconsolately at the pile of dripping, nearly new carpet that lay in his driveway. “It’s a bad 1995, already.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Cypress’ mayor, who appeared stunned by what she saw Thursday.

“Cars were lifted by the flood waters from the street onto sidewalks,” Age said. “In some homes, carpets absolutely were ruined, and I saw people just throwing away carpets. I also saw one gentleman trying to clean his big screen TV, taking it apart, piece by piece.”

Assessing the Damage

Wednesday’s storm, which dropped almost six inches of rain in inland areas of the county--and more than an inch during evening rush hour alone--wreaked havoc in Laguna Beach, where mudslides prompted homeowners to flee, and Garden Grove and Buena Park, where flood channels came apart at the seams. Evacuations also occurred in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

Train service between San Diego and Los Angeles was either delayed or canceled Wednesday night and Thursday, forcing Amtrak and Metrolink passengers to miss work or arrive hours late. Tracks flooded between Oceanside and San Diego and heavy rains washed out a bridge near Irvine.

The only good news was supplied by the National Weather Service, which reported Thursday that the storm would give way to partly cloudy skies--at least until Saturday, when more rain is expected.

“But nothing like (Wednesday) night should happen during the weekend,” said Jim Reynolds, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. “I would look for a mostly sunny day (today), with much warmer temperatures.”

WeatherData Inc., based in Wichita, Kan., was even more optimistic, with forecaster Kris Farnsworth saying weekend showers in California would probably be confined to areas north of Los Angeles.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors--which declared a state of emergency Wednesday night--was forced Thursday to consider a new wave of expenses, which came crashing in at the worst possible time, on the heels of last month’s bond-related bankruptcy.

The Fullerton Creek Channel, which crosses onto Beach Boulevard in Buena Park, collapsed Wednesday night, sending a torrent of water into surrounding neighborhoods, according to Tom Connelie, spokesman for the county’s Public Works Operations Department.

The East Garden Grove-Wintersberg Flood Channel also gave way, forcing numerous evacuations in Garden Grove. Connelie said Thursday the two problems combined constituted a loss of more than $3 million to the county, with the dollar figure expected to climb dramatically.

“Needless to say, it comes at an awful time for the county,” he said, “not to mention an untold amount of dollar damage to private homes. That figure is likely to be tremendous.”

Drying Off, Digging Out

Throughout the county, residents spent Thursday assessing the damage and trying to recover:

* In Buena Park, a section of Beach Boulevard near the bridge over Fullerton Creek at 11th Street gave way Thursday morning, forming a gaping hole at least 20 feet in diameter. Slabs of broken concrete lay jumbled in the crater.

Martha Ybarra, 21, who rents a small apartment near 11th and Beach, pointed to a line of dirt and debris two feet up the walls of her bedroom, evidence of how high the water had risen the night before. Mud caked the floors throughout the dwelling.

Ybarra’s stove remained in the center of her kitchen, where it had been moved by the water. And early Thursday morning, Ybarra discovered that her chest of drawers--which had been just inside the front door--had floated out down the street during the night and finally came to rest several houses away.

“The worst thing was I lost my cat,” Ybarra said quietly, standing beside her landlord, Richard D. Terrones. “We found him in the bushes over there this morning. He drowned in all the water.”

Across the tiny street, Mercedes Rodriguez, 27, helped her friend Angelica Negrete, 30, wipe off end tables and other sodden furniture on the lawn outside Negrete’s home. Already, the two had cleaned the house of the mud that had covered the floors.

Although Negrete and her husband were evacuated Wednesday night--along with other neighborhood residents--that experience was not the most frightening aspect of the flood, she said.

“It was a lot scarier when I came back and saw everything this morning,” Negrete groaned, with a wave toward her drenched furnishings.

* In a hard-hit area on the western edge of Garden Grove, on Belgrave Avenue near Bartlett Street, Grace Datu, 23, was sweeping water Thursday out of a board and care home owned by her sister-in-law and recalling the fear she felt the night before.

As floodwaters rose around them, Datu, her husband and several neighbors managed to evacuate the home’s six elderly residents, carrying some across the street and floating several others on a white leather sofa that served as a makeshift raft.

“We were all a little panicky because the water was up to our waists and the phone wasn’t working,” Datu said, adding that they were grateful to have been offered temporary refuge by neighbor Fred Peters. “But everyone was OK.”

Police later evacuated the residents--who range in age from 70 to 97--from the area on a boat. The residents spent the night in the home of the facility’s owner, Jean Santa Ana.

Across the street, Peters, 64, who described himself as a semi-retired salesman, lamented the condition of his back-yard pool--its contents now an ugly brown--and his once-comfortable house.

Peters led the way through the dwelling, where his son Brooks used a water vacuum on the soaked carpet in the master bedroom. In the living room, watered-down wallpaper was already peeling away from the walls near the floor and the carpet squished underfoot.

“We’re just waiting for the insurance people to come around for a look and bring me a copy of my policy,” Peters said. “I really don’t know at this point if I’m covered or not. I just hope it’ll be OK.”

The Latest Disaster

* In Laguna Beach, Wednesday’s storm ignited further political debate concerning the recent controversial grading of Laguna Canyon by the Transportation Corridor Agencies.

City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said Thursday the city plans to file a $400,000 claim against the agency, which is building the 17-mile San Joaquin Hills toll road between San Juan Capistrano and Newport Beach. Frank blamed grading for the tollway in Laguna Canyon for creating the dirt that turned into a mud flow when the rain hit.

Frank estimated the damage at Main Beach, including a strip of boardwalk that Wednesday’s storm eroded, as somewhere between $200,000 to $300,000. Cleanup alone may cost the city another $50,000, he said.

The deluge caused Laguna’s downtown storm drainage system to fail, leaving many with the opinion that it is hopelessly inadequate, particularly after the firestorm of 1993, which inflicted $528 million in damage and stripped the surrounding hillsides of vegetation.

But Pete Ott of Canyon Acres said the problems in his community were nothing compared to the city’s downtown.

“I couldn’t believe the mess they had down there,” said Ott, a resident for more than 40 years. Ott believes the storm drains “aren’t adequate for the runoff any more.”

Seventy percent of the city’s residents were left without power Wednesday night and most ofThursday, although power was fully restored by day’s end. However, many residents remained without phone service.

* Cypress officials estimated $900,000 in damage to property--mostly private homes and businesses. City Manager Darrell Essex estimated 250 homes and 25 businesses were affected.

The most severe problems occurred in the Tanglewood neighborhood in the southwestern section of the city, where a number of townhomes flooded and several cars floated away at the height of the storm Wednesday.

Don Wilson, 48, watched Thursday as a tow truck driver attached a winch to his stalled, gray Honda Prelude--license plate “Ah Don”--and hoisted it into the air. The night before, Wilson’s 16-year-old daughter had glanced out the window of their home to see the car, the water already halfway up its doors, drifting slowly on its own down Larwin Avenue toward Bloomfield Street.

Wilson said he had dashed outside and, with a neighbor’s help, pushed and pulled the car back near his home and tied it to a spindly tree with a rope. “It didn’t help much,” groaned Wilson, a mail carrier. “I think it’s totaled.”

Just down the street, Danny and Evelyn Cacioppo lamented their flood damage Thursday, even as they chuckled about the impromptu dinner party they had thrown the night before--for Evelyn’s seven bridge partners who were stranded at their home by the rain.

“We had all these women here. We had water up around our ankles but we had to feed them,” explained Evelyn Cacioppo, 65. “So before the electricity went out again, Danny put a pot of water on and we had pasta and garlic sauce, by candlelight. They all said it’s an experience they’ll never forget!”

* At Leisure World in Seal Beach, most of the elderly victims were expected to stay with relatives or friends, while others will stay in a Red Cross shelter that has been set up in a nearby clubhouse.

Seal Beach Mayor George Brown said the vast majority of Leisure World residents do not have flood insurance to cover the estimated $2 million in damage.

The city declared Leisure World a disaster area Thursday. City officials hope the state will also declare the city a disaster area so that Leisure World flood victims can receive low-interest loans to make repairs.

Despite the calamity, Brown said residents remain upbeat.

In fact, a few residents refused to leave their flooded homes last night when rescuers arrived. “They said it wasn’t so bad,” Brown said. “They said (the water) hadn’t reached their beds yet.”

Times staff writers Len Hall and Greg Hernandez and Times correspondents Leslie Earnest, Lesley Wright, Bill Billiter, Bert Eljera and Lynn Franey contributed to this report.

DEALING WITH DISASTER: Laguna plans to sue tollway agency for mud onslaught. A17

CONTROLS INADEQUATE: Flood channel system was unprepared for rains’ intensity. B1