Displaced Residents Await Flood Repairs

Alberta Hawn was cooking chicken soup in her kitchen Tuesday while wearing rubber boots because the floor is still partially covered with dried mud left from the county’s worst storm in 100 years.

“That will be our last meal here because all our pots and pans and silverware needs to be packed,” Hawn said.

Hawn and her husband, Douglas, 89, are among dozens of Leisure World residents who are coping with damage from the Dec. 6 El Nino storm that dumped about 8 inches of rain in parts of Orange County. It was declared a disaster by the state.

Along with dozens of their neighbors, these residents of the giant retirement community have been living in nearby hotels until construction crews repair their homes.

They will probably spend an additional six to eight weeks there, based on estimates given to them by construction workers.

Crews have been working from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. since the Dec. 6 rains to clean up rain-soaked carpeting and walls and the damage left by mud.

“We were still wading in 4 inches of muddy water on Sunday,” Douglas Hawn said. “We can’t sleep here, we can hardly stand to be in here.”

Leisure World officials say they received about 800 telephone calls from residents that Saturday, including some reports of damaged ceilings but mostly for damaged carpeting and floors.

“Five water evacuation crews have been on site since the day it happened, getting water out of the units,” said Tanya McElhaney, Leisure World’s community relations manager. “Four roofing crews are working with our entire staff [of 600 workers] to handle the structural calls.”

Residents who live in this walled community, established in 1964, must be 55 and older. There are 12,700 condos and co-ops housing about 19,000 people.

McElhaney said structural damages would be covered by the company’s insurance, but that residents must pay for the loss of personal property.

The Hawns were packing anything salvageable so workers can rip out damaged walls and floors and replace kitchen cabinets and carpeting.

Frances Sanfilippo, 73, and her husband Frank, 76, live next door to the Hawns. On Tuesday, the apartment was just a shell. Only the odd picture frame or curtains with muddy ends were hanging from walls.

The entire home is a construction zone as workers were ripping out drywall. The soggy carpeting lay in two piles outside their apartment, along with personal belongings that have been ruined.

The yard was littered with possessions that water had ruined--a $3,000 electric bed, photograph albums, furniture and suitcases.

“I woke up at 4 a.m. and stepped into water and mud,” said Frances Sanfilippo.

Both the Sanfilippos and the Hawns live near a golf cart tunnel that passes under El Toro Road. The storm apparently transformed the tunnel into a river when storm drains backed up. The water was as much as 2 feet deep at some front doors, making it difficult for residents to open their doors.

Vernon Pelley, 78, had piled much of his stuff into the middle bedroom, which was relatively unscathed. “I feel we are living like rats,” he said.