La Conchita Evacuation Area Grows to 100 Houses : Landslide: The zone now encompasses about two-thirds of the community. Some residents take the first steps toward filing lawsuits.

Saying a landslide looming over La Conchita is more precarious than initially thought, county officials late Wednesday expanded a voluntary evacuation area to include more than 100 houses, about two-thirds of the seaside community.

Meanwhile, some displaced residents took the first steps toward filing a lawsuit to pay for lost homes and a plunge in property values.

“I keep hearing ‘act of God, act of God,’ ” said Larry Burdorf, who said he has contacted a Ventura law firm. “But it came from the ground. It’s not an act of God. This was an act of negligence.”

Burdorf and others say the county should be held partly responsible for the damage because officials did not disclose the mountain’s history of instability, including a deadly slide in the early 1900s.

Other residents said they suspect irrigation of citrus and avocado trees on the mountain above La Conchita contributed to the erosion.

The manager of the ranch, David Orr, has declined to comment. But a soils study commissioned by the ranch owners two years ago concluded that irrigation water played no role in Saturday’s 600,000-ton slide.

County officials have denied responsibility, saying that developers, not public officials, are responsible for the stability of land on which they build. Furthermore, they said they began warning residents of a potential slide several months ago.

Of more immediate concern to residents and emergency workers is the rainfall expected through Saturday. Forecasters with the National Weather Service predicted one to three inches of rain would drench Ventura County today, with the same amount possible Friday.

Residents reacted with tears and disbelief to the news that the evacuation area had been widened to include more than 100 residences. County officials made the announcement at an evening briefing.

“I thought we were sitting pretty,” said a dejected Diane Preis, 26, who with her boyfriend Eric Hart, 28, have moved from a house on Vista del Rincon Drive to his parents’ home several blocks away.

She said the family planned to stay up all night packing to “get the hell out of Dodge.”

Earlier in the day, residents who gathered for a morning briefing with county and federal officials were urged to apply for disaster assistance by Monday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has declared that La Conchita residents qualify for help as part of the response to January’s floods.

The U. S. Geological Survey “has said there was a causal relationship between what happened in January and what’s going on now,” said Mary Donev, a spokeswoman for FEMA.

Debbie Spann, 35, said she is hoping to receive money to pay for a first and last month’s rent so she can move permanently from her house. “Even if they declared it safe, I couldn’t sleep there again,” she said.

Meanwhile, road crews and firefighters resumed sandbagging and installed three-foot-high concrete barriers on Vista Del Rincon Drive to channel anticipated flows of mud away from residences.

After being dropped off by a helicopter, two county geologists scrambled up the slope and dug a trench to drain off water in a shallow pool. Officials had worried that the weight of the water could trigger another mudslide in the exposed area.

Jim O’Tousa, a consulting geologist, said, “There was no significant change” Wednesday in fissures on a nearby hillside that officials consider a threat to more houses.

To help gauge the potential danger, a swarm of geologists and soil engineers arrived Wednesday. The scientists from the Army Corps of Engineers, the U. S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines toured the area by helicopter and met with county geologists for much of the afternoon.

With no more visible movement, businesses and disaster relief workers focused on making life easier for the 200 or so people forced from their homes.

The La Conchita Market, the meeting spot for many neighbors and the community’s only retail business, gave away more than 65 burgers and french fries within a half hour at lunchtime.

Red Cross volunteers handed out more than 150 submarine sandwiches and cartons of apples to residents, sheriff’s deputies and L.A. television crews.

And postal workers from Ventura installed 100 temporary mailboxes near the entrance to La Conchita for residents barred from their homes. Mail delivery has been temporarily suspended to the houses buried beneath rubble or threatened by the slide.

Burdorf, a six-year resident of La Conchita who has passed out flyers about a possible lawsuit, said about 50 residents have expressed interest.

Ventura attorney Bob Gallaway, whose firm was contacted by Burdorf, said he hopes to meet with residents within a week. After the meeting, his firm will decide whether to take the case.

La Conchita homeowner Warren Bateman said the county should have warned people about ancient slides before issuing building permits. He said he is anxious to move forward with a lawsuit.

“At this point, we don’t need the average attorney,” Bateman said. “We need toughies. . . . That’s all there is to it.”

Correspondent Paul Elias contributed to this report.