More Homes in Peril as 2nd Landslide Predicted : La Conchita: More than 100 evacuated as officials deliver dire warnings to residents inside 60-house zone.

As 600,000 tons of mud slid farther through the wreckage of nine La Conchita houses Sunday, geologists braced for another, equally destructive, landslide that they predict will destroy more homes.

By Sunday afternoon, more than 100 people had been evacuated from this seaside village northwest of Ventura, and 18 homes had been declared destroyed or unsafe or were abandoned, said county officials.

As one geologist told emergency officials, “Right now, the soil up there is like maple syrup.”

Warning residents to leave the area because the increasingly unstable hillside was in danger of collapsing, Ventura County sheriff’s officials huddled in a tent for a tense meeting with about 50 La Conchita residents--some crying, some angry and others who simply wanted to know if school buses would run or mail would be delivered.

“You must gather up your personal belongings and leave tonight,” Sheriff’s Cmdr. Richard Purnell warned anyone living inside the 60-house evacuation zone. “We cannot guarantee that we can provide you with adequate warning if the earth starts moving.”

Purnell emphasized that anyone who stays is “in our opinion, trying to commit suicide.”

Sheriff Larry Carpenter said emergency workers would try to sound sirens in case of a sudden collapse. But he told residents not to wait for a signal: “Don’t depend on us. If you hear the earth moving or a roar, get out. Run.”

Earlier Sunday, county Senior Building Official Tom Melugin strode from house to house, slapping red tags on two homes that were destroyed and a third in danger of being crushed by a house leaning precariously next door.

Orange-helmeted search-and-rescue teams escorted residents home one by one, letting them grab vital possessions in five-minute spurts before hurrying them back to safety.

A sheriff’s snowmobile stood by, ready to zip across the spreading mud flow in case more of the hillside suddenly collapsed. Traffic crept past on Pacific Coast Highway, the looky-loos backing up for miles.

Sheriff’s helicopters clattered over the slide, ferrying geologists for a close look at the huge chunk bitten out of the hillside.

From the air, wrecked roofs and half-buried walls could be seen sticking through the ruddy, brown fan of mud.

Rainfall increased throughout the day, bringing with it heightened danger of another landslide equal to Saturday’s, said Robert Anderson, a Camarillo geologist hired by the county to watch the slide.

Water was pooling behind the original slide that destroyed seven houses and two mobile homes Saturday, threatening to send the pile of mud tumbling downhill toward other homes.

And water was saturating the massive hillside to the left of the original slide so heavily that it could give way and slam into at least 10 houses below, Anderson said.

“It’s nature in action,” he said. “There’s no question about that.”

Saddened, Don Chiapuzio could only watch as tons of rain-soaked mud nuzzled up behind his house on Vista Del Rincon Drive and shoved it inch by inch toward destruction.

Two houses to its left had been crushed Saturday afternoon, and the steadily creeping mud had shoved the nearest home over to lean within three feet of Chiapuzio’s home.

As Chiapuzio watched, building official Melugin hurriedly tacked a red condemnation tag over the yellow warning tag that had been stuck to his home just hours before.

Like other residents, Chiapuzio places blame for the mudslide on one group: The La Conchita Ranch, which residents say irrigated its cliff-top citrus groves to the point where water filtered into the hillside and weakened it.

Ranch operator David Orr declined to comment Sunday night.

But with no stomach for lawsuits, no flood insurance and no guarantees of state or federal aid, Chiapuzio, a 63-year-old electrical contractor, seemed resigned to kiss the home he built 16 years ago goodby.

“It looks like it’s gonna go,” Chiapuzio said numbly, rain sluicing off his fluorescent pink cap and down his yellow slicker. “I never thought anything was going to happen to it. I’ll never live there again. I’d be afraid. It’s too frightening.”

With a search-and-rescue team at her side, resident Vivian Cordova scurried into the shadow of the landslide to retrieve belongings from her house on Vista Del Rincon. A mountain of earth loomed over where her back yard used to be.

Cursing breathlessly, the 36-year-old garden designer flung everything she could into trash bags--clothes, checkbook, compact discs, irreplaceable sketches and cooking utensils she would need to feed her two children.

“I sure wish I could take my stereo,” Cordova said, hovering anxiously with her hand to her lips, before she dove back into the bedroom to grab her jewelry and more clothes.

Elizabeth Martin-Novy, 59, stood at the bottom of the hill, looking up at the wall of wet earth that had buried homes across the street from her trailer and pressed up to her door.

“The mountain looks like it’s always been there, but it hasn’t,” she said.

Senior Sheriff’s Deputy Darryl Dunn said the cooperation of residents “was instrumental in saving lives” when the hill finally collapsed Saturday.

“I started getting calls at three or four minutes to two yesterday,” Dunn said Sunday. “We had two units up there and immediately started putting out a warning on the P. A. system, saying, ‘This is the Sheriff’s Department. We are urging you to evacuate your home because of the mud flow behind Vista Del Rincon Drive.’

“People were asking, ‘Darryl, is this the big one?’ ” he recalled. “And I said, ‘Just turn around and look.’ And that’s when it started to go.”

Reed is a staff writer and Mitchell is a Times correspondent.

* STORMS CONTINUE: Rain snarls traffic. Four stranded hikers are rescued. B1