Disaster Sends an Army of Volunteers Into Action

Ben Brooks, who makes a living promoting records, had anything but music on his mind Wednesday morning.

Brooks, who maneuvered plywood panels into a wall-like barrier to protect his neighbors’ homes on a narrow street in the Pasadena foothills from mudslides, was not alone in his good deeds. Scores of Southern Californians helped neighbors--and in some instances complete strangers--brace for the next in a series of crippling winter storms.

“When one person doesn’t put boards up, the next person down the hill is in jeopardy,” said the Pasadena Glen Road resident, who had taken the day off from work to help prepare for mudslides.

Earthquakes, riots, wildfires, floods, mudslides: Southern California is like a punching bag for natural and man-made disasters.

But in the wake of each calamity, a steady stream of unsung heroes steps forward to provide food and shelter, to clear debris or brush, to replenish blood supplies or in the latest case, to ward off water and mud by sandbagging or even by erecting plywood barricades in flooded areas.

“When we have an emergency, a lot of people drop what they are doing and take days off from work to help other people,” said Manuel Rivas, spokesman for the Los Angeles chapter of the American Red Cross. “We’re very lucky in Southern California to have a very good volunteer base that can come out in a time like this.”

President Clinton agreed with that assessment in his address from a drier, gentler Washington on Wednesday.

Pledging emergency assistance to California, Clinton praised volunteers from across the state for their “quick and good” efforts.

“Californians have proven over the last few years they have a very resilient spirit and a great sense of community,” Clinton said. “With the earthquakes and the fires, you have shown that you’re a people who can come together in times of crises and overcome those crises.”

During the height of Tuesday’s storm, hundreds of volunteers helped staff 16 Red Cross emergency shelters across Southern California that were opened at little more than a moment’s notice.

And as of Wednesday, more than 500 hot meals had been served at Red Cross shelters in Ventura County with the help of more than 75 volunteers. Many of those displaced by the storm in Ventura were homeless men and women who had camped along the Ventura River.

“At this point, we’re concentrating on getting people out of the weather and providing them food, water and sanitary facilities,” said Brian Bolton, executive director of the Red Cross’ Ventura County chapter.

At the Topanga Turnout, a small shopping area in Topanga Canyon, waves of volunteers worked all day Wednesday, trying to clear a parking lot swamped with mud and create a culvert to divert water.

The job was complicated early Wednesday when an underground water main burst, creating a sinkhole in the parking lot along Topanga Canyon Boulevard, said Gabrielle Lamirand, the former property manager who showed up to volunteer. But the work was made easier with the appearance of outside good Samaritans and with a fresh supply of coffee from a nearby restaurant, the Chill Out Cafe.

Peter Gunness, a 19-year-old geology student from the city of Orange, said he felt compelled to help in any way he could. “Me and my buddy, we just cruised up here from Orange to help out.”

“I’m just concerned about the canyon here,” said 21-year-old John Plummer of Missouri, who is visiting the Southland.

In Malibu, where more than a dozen volunteers rushed to aid the storm-battered Cosentino’s nursery Tuesday, a stranger helped the Cosentino family move potted plants through the mud to higher ground Wednesday morning.

“A lot of people have helped us, including strangers and people who used to work here,” Manny Cosentino said.

Efforts by outsiders to provide volunteer help in Malibu were hampered by the closure of the Malibu Lagoon Bridge and by police roadblocks restricting access to local residents.

“People have called from Orange County, Long Beach and the Valley, but they can’t get here because the road is closed,” said Damon Dertina, director of the Pepperdine Volunteer Center.

But in other hard-hit areas, access proved less of a problem.

In the Ventura County community of Fillmore, general contractor Russell Butler said he called 11 employees to his home Tuesday and again Wednesday to help protect his home. Once they finished at his house, they moved to help his neighbors cope with knee-high mud oozing down their street.

Some employees drove from as far as Ventura and Oxnard to help in the relief effort, which included sandbagging neighbors’ homes as a nearby hill began to give way and the roadway turned into a muddy river.

“We are pretty well a family,” Butler, 38, said of his crew, whom he paid for the work. Among those receiving help was Steve Sutton, whose home was being inundated with mud when Butler’s crew erected a wooden dam behind the home and slowed the flow.

Sutton in turn spent Wednesday afternoon placing sandbags in Butler’s back yard. “That’s what being neighbors is all about,” Sutton said.

Neighbors in the Sun Valley area of Laguna Canyon quickly banded together Wednesday morning to shore up an access bridge that was damaged the night before when debris-filled waters raged over the sides of a nearby creek.

“I have the greatest bunch of neighbors that anyone could have,” said Liz Reese, a 50-year-old hairdresser, as she shoveled mud from the rear of her Sun Valley Drive house.

Many residents praised Jared Blacketer, 33, who was busily smoothing out the last of nearly two truckloads of freshly poured concrete to fix the bridge.

Blacketer, a heavy-equipment operator for a local company, used a tractor the night before to build dirt berms near homes to keep them from being inundated. His volunteer work kept the fast-moving waters out of at least two homes.

Blacketer said he was told by a Caltrans worker Tuesday night not to move dirt to protect the houses, presumably because they would just wash away.

“Caltrans came up and told me to stop,” Blacketer said. “I said, ‘Get out of my way.’ He came up again and said he was going to have me arrested. I said, ‘Bring them on. ‘ “

Not that everyone in the Southland experienced neighborhood altruism in the wake of the storm. A Hemet man whose ranch-style house on Paradise Cove was flooded Tuesday night said the only assistance he got was from a neighbor who offered the use of an industrial vacuum cleaner. Other neighbors, said Joe Marschand, were either not home, too old or didn’t care.

“Out here, it’s every man for himself,” said a resigned Marschand, 50, who has lived in the neighborhood for 16 years. By Wednesday afternoon, Marschand finally got some help--from the Riverside County Fire Department.

In Pasadena Glen, however, Brooks, who is usually at his Hollywood Records office by 9 a.m., spent much of his day tossing sandbags instead of plugging hot new CDs.

“Elsewhere, when it rains, people think it’s nice, cozy,” said the 42-year-old father of three. “Here you say, ‘How much longer should I stay?’ ”