County Surveys Toll After Mud Crushes Homes, Chokes Roads : Weather: Statewide, six people are killed as storm destruction reaches across a broad swath from Big Sur to Orange County.

As California cleaned up after savage rains that left a trail of death across the state, Ventura County counted its own storm toll Saturday in mud-crushed houses, blocked highways and communities left virtually paralyzed.

Across the state, harsh gales and high floodwaters killed at least two people in a devastating collapse of the Interstate 5 freeway in Coalinga, swept two more to their deaths in Santa Barbara, sent a Pasadena motorist plunging to his death and left a transient dead near a Van Nuys golf course.

La Conchita residents slogged through fresh chest-high mud that choked streets, mired cars and seriously damaged at least four more houses. An Oak View family counted their blessings after narrowly escaping a wall of mud and debris that smashed into their house.

“With the exception of the house, we didn’t lose anything major,” said Randy Lewis, surveying his damaged house near Ojai with his family Saturday morning. “Everyone is safe.”

Stranded motorists piled up on road shoulders throughout western Ventura County as cleanup crews struggled with mudflows that crippled mountain roads, and with residue left on the Ventura Freeway by the raging Ventura River.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies cut back their full-time deputies covering La Conchita “because this rain has wreaked havoc elsewhere,” Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Tennessen told a gathering of residents Saturday evening. About 10 deputies now patrol the village, where 25 or 30 were working last week.

Deputies also fenced off La Conchita against looters and spectators Saturday and issued special passes to residents of that landslide-battered coastal village.

“Once the high presence goes down, looky-loos come in and wander around your property,” Sheriff’s Cmdr. Richard Purnell explained. “And some don’t have the best intentions.”

Geologists surveying La Conchita’s crumbling hillsides remained wary of a possible replay of last weekend’s devastating mudslide, which crushed nine houses.

But even after seven-foot-deep mud flowed into La Conchita’s west-end streets, miring cars and undermining mobile homes along Carpinteria Avenue, a U. S. geologist predicted the next large-scale landslide will come in a slow ooze rather than a sudden wave of destruction.

“I think it’s more stable now,” said Robert L. Schuster, a U. S. Geological Survey landslide expert. “I don’t think it’s going to come down at high velocity. It depends on the weather. I would think it would be a creeping movement.”

Most residents evacuated La Conchita to camp with friends in nearby Seacliff or be escorted to Santa Barbara hotels through channels carved across mud-bogged freeways by emergency crews. But a few hardy souls stuck to their homes.

“I feel I have a responsibility to the community,” said Jack Falk, 38, a 14-year resident, whose house on Carpinteria Avenue is now hemmed in by knee-deep mud. “If (emergency workers) see us staying rather than bailing, they might work harder to save the community.”

Meanwhile, emergency officials struggled with on-again, off-again promises of disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee assured La Conchita residents last week that they would get aid from the disaster package approved for January’s devastating floods.

But late last week, FEMA officials said they were uncertain whether aid could come from the January funds or from a new package of federal aid being considered for the March storms.

“People are aware that there seems to be a glitch, but they’re not sure why there’s a glitch,” Kildee said. “I just talked to (Rep.) Elton Gallegly. He’s been in close contact with (FEMA Director) James Lee Witt and he seems to feel that we will get some kind of relief.”

But FEMA spokeswoman Mary Donev told residents Saturday night that they do qualify for federal aid under the January disaster, explaining, “The hill fell down because of the January rains.”

But Donev said each claim will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis because the damage occurred after the disaster deadline passed Feb. 10.

The storm also battered crops on the Oxnard Plain, leaving the county’s beaches littered with strawberries that had washed out to sea in the relentless downpour, Ventura County Farm Bureau director Rex Laird said. Rain-damaged crops around the state prompted predictions of higher produce prices in supermarkets.

Toppled power lines left 4,000 Ventura County residents and 22,500 Santa Barbara County residents briefly without electricity Friday night. After repairs, about 200 Ventura County residents and 1,500 in Santa Barbara County were still in darkness Saturday afternoon.

While thundershowers continued in some areas through Saturday night, Southern California is expected to get a reprieve today and for the foreseeable future. Another storm front is forecast to arrive in California Monday, but it is expected to remain mostly in the north and pack less power, forecasters said.

“This looks like the last shot, then it should be dry for an extended period,” said Curtis Brack, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Death came with a terrible variety in a 200-mile storm swath from the central valley to Pasadena.

It was at an unremarkable bridge in rolling farm country that the devastating I-5 collapse occurred near Coalinga.

About 9:20 p.m. Friday, the columns propping up the giant freeway could no longer sustain a pounding from normally tranquil Arroyo Pasajero Creek. Boulders, uprooted trees and mud battered the columns until at least five gave way. When they did, two lanes that travel in each direction suddenly disappeared.

At least four cars hurtled off the roadway and into the brown water, although an exact count was difficult because of treacherous conditions and because the creek bed has for years been a dumping ground for abandoned cars.

One man was able to pull himself from the wreckage of a car and into a tree, where he waited for rescuers. Two bodies were spotted in one capsized car, but the floodwaters were too swift to retrieve them. The search for other survivors was apparently in vain.

A Fresno County sheriff’s helicopter fired flares into the darkness Friday night at the site but could not find anyone, including two waitresses and a cook from nearby restaurants who were reported missing.

“There is no way to save a life, not as this stage,” said Sgt. Jim Hamilton of the Fresno County sheriff’s search and rescue team. “This is not a rescue operation anymore, it’s a recovery mission.”

A Caltrans official who surveyed the damage said the highway, the main line from Los Angeles to San Francisco and points beyond, would be out for at least six weeks. Traffic will be forced to either detour around a nine-mile stretch of the closed freeway or reroute to U.S. 99 or to U.S. 101, which is nearer the coast.

Dave Crockett, a foreman at TCI Truck Leasing, said the closing of I-5 is “going to crucify us,” creating a major disruption for his company and other shippers.

To the south in Santa Barbara, administrative law Judge Edward H. Schiff was swept to his death. He had been mopping floodwater from his home when a wave of water from Sycamore Creek crashed through French doors. Schiff and his wife Lilliane were flushed toward the front door. She managed to grab hold of the doorjamb and cling there until firefighters arrived, said Deputy Alfredo Ontiveros of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department.

But Judge Schiff was washed away, his body found later, snarled in foliage and trees farther down the street, Ontiveros said. Schiff, 67, was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the north Santa Barbara County town of Santa Ynez, a car was trapped in a stream after leaving Camp Cielo in the Los Padres National Forest Friday afternoon.

A passenger, 18-year-old Rosa Jimenez, climbed onto the hood. But the car lurched sideways and dumped her into the swift current, said sheriff’s deputy Tim Gracie. Jimenez’ body was found downstream Saturday morning.

Farther north at the Monterey-Santa Cruz County line, more than 2,000 people were evacuated from the town of Pajaro when the river of the same name overflowed its banks, flooding a mile-wide area with up to three feet of water. Some residents of the low-lying town who refused orders to leave were rescued Saturday by boat.

Big Sur and Carmel Highlands had only one small mountain road to connect them to the outside world after a bridge over the Carmel River on California 1 washed out and mudslides closed Pacific Coast Highway more than 20 miles to the south.

A Red Cross worker said it will be more than a week before road access to the region is restored. For at least part of Saturday the only communication into the areas came from ham radio operators.

Dr. Philip Miller found himself working after being enlisted by the local fire chief, whom he happened to pass on the road. Miller said volunteers were prepared to make a dramatic run via inflatable powerboat to Monterey to fetch medicine. “We are going around the horn,” he said.

One entrepreneur found opportunity amid the chaos, stopping by with his helicopter, en route to an air show, offering to ferry passengers over the washed-out bridge for $30 a head. His brightly colored copter bore the words “Aloha Fresh Fruit Bars.”

In Los Angeles County, a Pasadena motorist and a Van Nuys transient were killed, about 15,000 homes served by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power lost electricity and disaster-prone Malibu took another heavy blow.

The homeless man, a Native American in his 40s, had apparently been sleeping in the Sepulveda Basin when he was swept away by waters from a rain-swollen flood control channel.

Groundskeepers at the Woodley Golf Course found the body about 7:30 a.m. Saturday near the 18th hole, said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Brad Kubela. “He apparently died from drowning, hypothermia or both,” he said.

In Pasadena, authorities did not identify the 36-year-old man whose car plummeted 25 feet off the northbound Pasadena Freeway into the Arroyo Seco channel about 5:20 a.m. Saturday. The car landed upside down in the concrete waterway and was submerged when rescuers arrived, said California Highway Patrol Officer Rob Lund. A passenger was saved but the driver died of undetermined causes.

In Malibu, an estimated 100 houses on Pacific Coast Highway were socked in by walls of mud, mixed with rocks, tree trunks and gnarled root balls. The debris washed across the highway when Tuna, Pena and Big Rock creeks overflowed.

Several residents had to flee over their roofs as water blocked their front doors. Garage doors were blown off their hinges, decks collapsed to the sandy beach floor, chunks of foundation gave way and exterior gates crashed under the weight of the debris. The highway was littered with BMWs, Mercedeses and mini-trucks that washed away from their driveways.

Waist-deep mud inundated at least 10 houses, where tennis shoes, computers, teddy bears, couches and stair-climbers were left floating. A 25-foot mountain of rock, sand and dirt covered the highway at Pena Canyon and it appeared that the highway would remain closed through Monday.

Christina Capps, a 20-year resident who lives just west of Tuna Canyon, said she was battered black and blue by debris as she fled through the muck with her two dogs after midnight.

“You decide real fast what is important in your life,” she said.

Near San Bernardino, three young boys were washed away as they rode their bikes through a flood control channel, a California Department of Forestry officer said.

Capt. Andrew Bennett said officers, responding to a call from a group of apartment complex residents who spotted the boys floating in the channel, fished a 10-year-old and his 14-year-old brother out of the rushing water.

About 20 minutes later, a sheriff’s deputy found the brothers’ 7-year-old playmate in another part of the channel and secured the youngster with rope, Bennett said. Officials said the three boys were transported to San Bernardino County Medical Center for treatment of hypothermia.

Orange County was not spared, with sections of two major roads closed and power cut off to about 13,000 Santa Ana residents, but police reported no serious damage or injuries.

Rain and runoff buckled a portion of busy El Toro Road in Mission Viejo. Authorities closed the street in both directions, creating long traffic delays for motorists Saturday morning. Residents of nearby Portola Hills faced a 20-mile detour to get to and from their neighborhood, but work crews were expected to repair the road before Monday’s rush hour.

In San Juan Capistrano, the storm weakened a bridge on Ortega Highway, closing the road in both directions near La Pata Avenue.

Power poles snapped by 35 m.p.h. winds caused traffic to be diverted from Sand Canyon Avenue--between the Santa Ana Freeway and Alton Parkway--while workers cleaned up the road, Sheriff’s Lt. Jay Mendez said.

Times staff writers James Rainey, Lisa Respers and Ron Russell in Los Angeles, Julie Fields in Ventura, Richard C. Paddock in San Francisco, Leo C. Wolinsky in Big Sur, Maria La Ganga in Napa, J.R. Moehringer and Thao Hua in Orange County and Tony Perry in San Diego contributed to this story. Correspondents Kathleen Kelleher in Malibu and Paul Elias and Tracy Wilson in Ventura also contributed. Arax reported from Coalinga and Reed from Ventura County.

* VENTURA SOAKED: A woman and her dogs are rescued from a culvert. B1