Floodwaters Recede, Residents Take Over : East: Taking the disaster in stride, people begin mopping up, clearing away debris and mud and assessing the damage.

Jim Brockett had no idea where the bridge from his house to his barn had gone. Ron Cole was confronted with a three-ton boulder when he tried to drive out of Carlisle Canyon.

Don Whickman found his brother’s driveway covered with two feet of rapidly moving water. Danny Villalva’s pickup truck got hopelessly mired in mud on Rancho Road in Thousand Oaks and had to be towed.

It was that kind of day in eastern Ventura County as residents dragged fallen trees off roads, cleaned muddy patios and emerged from areas cut off by flooding from Tuesday’s big storm.

For the most part, residents took the storm in stride, shrugging nonchalantly that they have lived through worse, remembering the flood of 1969 and the wildfires of 1993.

“We’re used to fires and floods,” Brockett said, looking down at the rushing waters of Carlisle Canyon Creek, which stranded him at home Tuesday. “It’s obnoxious and it’s an inconvenience, but it’s not like we’re crossing swollen streams like other people.”

The southeast corner of Thousand Oaks and parts of unincorporated Ventura County were the hardest hit regions in the East County, with considerable flood damage at Westlake Lake and roads in Carlisle Canyon still awash with mud and moving water.

Hillsides in Newbury Park, scarred by the 1993 wildfires, held despite nearly four inches of rain dumped on them by the storm.

Thousand Oaks Finance Director Bob Biery had no estimates yet of how much the storm might have cost the city, but predicted that the number will be low.

“The city generally was pretty fortunate,” Biery said. “The city of Thousand Oaks has done a good job over the years in laying the city out.”

Streets in Simi Valley were dry, and Metrolink officials were able to reopen the railroad bridge in Moorpark, which closed Tuesday after high water and debris raging through the Arroyo Simi undermined its ballast supports.

Both Kanan and Carlisle roads in the county remained closed Wednesday, but sections of Portrero, Rancho and Newbury Park roads were all reopened.

In Hidden Valley, horses squelched through wet fields, an access road was washed out and several trees were knocked down by pounding rains and wind.

County crews spent most of the day repairing a cement flood control channel at Westlake Lake that was damaged by the powerful onslaught of water rushing from Lake Sherwood and the surrounding hills.

The dam at Lake Sherwood was still running rapidly Wednesday, but water levels had dropped substantially at the shallow end of the lake, leaving some boats stuck in mud up to their gunwales.

But it was on Carlisle Road--where the 1993 wildfires had burned two trailers, ravaged hillsides and terrified residents--that the storm’s effects were most dramatic. The normally placid waters that run through the canyon raged over the road and bridges in several places, trapping some residents in the canyon. Others retreated to hotels.

Caretaker Rigoberto Hernandez was marooned at the log-cabin style home of his employer, Tim Whickman, for 24 hours. Meanwhile, Whickman was stuck at his home in Mammoth.

“Everything came by so quickly,” Hernandez said, when the river had died down enough for him to pick his way slowly across the road in knee-high boots.

Mud was a foot deep, filled with trash, portions of trees and Whickman’s recently installed fence.

The part of Whickman’s driveway that crosses the creek had turned into a waterfall, but his brother Don, who came out to inspect the property, said it appeared to be holding.

“We were real leery coming over this because the water is so powerful,” Whickman said after crossing the stream in his four-wheel drive truck.

A second major obstacle blocked the road farther up the canyon: a three-ton boulder that dropped onto a narrow, winding corner.

Resident Ron Cole said he called county officials Tuesday for help. But he said he was referred to the Fire Department, which maintains only the lower part of the road.

Caught behind the rock, one resident decided to go ahead and order up some help, calling in private contractor Bruce Decker.

Decker drove his mini-bulldozer up to the enormous boulder and strained his machine to push it to the side. But it still protruded out into the steep road.

“I wonder if that’s good enough,” Decker said. “Well, the county’s probably going to have to come up and get it anyway.”

Most of the water that rushed through the Conejo Valley’s creeks Tuesday ended up at the Hill Canyon waste water treatment plant, which handles the sewage for Thousand Oaks.

Because the plant was over capacity, supervisor Jack Dudley said about 425,000 gallons of partly treated sewage had to be released into the Arroyo Conejo. But he said that all of it was chlorinated and should not pose a health hazard.

“We’ve got everything under control again,” Dudley said. “We are gaining ground as long as it doesn’t rain.”

As curious crowds watched at Westlake Lake, a crane lifted rocks into the flood channel, piling them up against its eroded side wall. During the height of the storm Tuesday, the bridge on Triunfo Canyon Road was closed after floodwaters rushed across it. The back yards of two homes adjacent to the bridge were eroded, but officials said the damage was not extensive.

“All they lost was a retaining wall,” said county worker John Vaughn. “And the bridge is fine.”

Kristi Dworman took her two children, Kelsey, 5, and Evan, 14 months, out to see the big machinery at work. “This is the first outing we’ve had in a couple of days,” Dworman said. “We’re just glad it stopped raining.”

Watching Kelsey peer into the still swirling channel, normally a trickle, Dworman said she had another reason for taking her daughter there.

“It’s kind of a good time to teach her not to go near the rivers,” Dworman said. “It’s so tragic when you hear about the kids being swept away.”