THE CALIFORNIA DELUGE : Islands in the Flood : Malibu: Residents Clean Up, Stock Supplies and Savor Their Isolation

They are known as some of the toniest stops on a sort of Southern California Riviera. Laguna Beach, Malibu and Santa Barbara are separated by 200 miles of coastline, but they are united by their images as sunny playgrounds.

Malibu has its movie celebrities. Laguna Beach has its artists colony. And Santa Barbara has an understated combination of the two. And all three cities have shared a propensity in recent years for brush fires.

As most of Southern California bailed out of torrential rains, the glamorous trio of beach resorts had something else in common Wednesday--flooded streets and highways had left them essentially isolated from the outside world.

The Pier View Cafe and Cantina on Pacific Coast Highway offered a new libation. “Come Try Our Mudslide” read the marquee out front.

At nearby Maliblues Cafe, a sign beckoned: “Tonite: You’re Trapped--We’re Open.”

After a day of hellacious rain and flooding, Malibu residents found themselves cut off Wednesday from most of the outside world--a condition they took with equal measures of anxiety and aplomb.

The closure of Pacific Coast Highway at Malibu Lagoon and the blockage of most of the major canyon roads left people alone to clean up, pack in supplies and even celebrate the splendid isolation that reminded some old-timers of the time when Malibu was more state of mind than city.

Damage was most extensive at the Malibu Country Mart shopping center, where most of the 22 businesses were scraping mud off floors and trying to salvage merchandise. Only one business was open--a hot-dog stand selling lunches to hungry merchants.

“We would all like to survive and go on, but we don’t have insurance because we are all in a flood plain,” said Marina Strong, owner of the Memoire linen boutique. “Everyone is kind of wandering around in a daze here right now.”

Even many businesses not flooded out were prevented from opening because employees could not reach the shopping center from “town”--as locals call the rest of metropolitan Los Angeles.

Renowned around the world for its beaches and as the home of Hollywood’s rich and famous, the 27-mile-long community is an enigma to many outsiders who come for an afternoon. A drive up the coast finds views of gas stations and motels but few spectacular vistas. And most of the celebrities are remarkably unrecognizable in their sweats and dark glasses.

But locals take pride that Malibu is a world apart--a place where some people still ride their horses on rustic country roads. The outdoorsy atmosphere has been tempered by increasing development but reinforced by wildfires, floods and pounding ocean waves.

At the Hughes Market, registers were ringing Wednesday at double the normal rate, and drinking water and batteries were hot items.

But for those stuck on the east side of the crippled Coast Highway bridge, supermarkets were not an option. They snapped up staples--milk, meat, produce--from a few small groceries and the Pacific Coast Greens health food store. One man approached a local restaurant and offered $7 for a loaf of bread.

“I’ll stay open until everything is gone, but that won’t make it ‘til the end of the week,” said Mike Osterman, owner of the health food store.

“We are effectively now an island,” Osterman said. “You can’t go east and you can’t go west.”

For everyone fretting about the isolation, though, there seemed to be many others happy to have a day to themselves.

Tania Verruno made a waffle breakfast at her home for about 12 neighbors on Las Flores Beach and wondered how long it would be before the highway opened.

“We feel badly for everyone who was hurt. But for those who are not having problems, it’s sort of a vacation,” Verruno said.

Strolling along a nearly empty Surfrider Beach, a homeless man found solace in the calm, even though his tent had been flooded.

“All of a sudden, it’s quiet and tranquil,” said the man, a 15-year resident who declined to give his name. “It’s like the old Malibu. It’s like living out in the country.”