Church, 3 Homes Fall Victim to Mudslides

Following a series of early morning landslides, Ventura officials concerned about an unstable hillside condemned three additional buildings and an apartment Wednesday as residents and government officials throughout the county continued to assess the toll of this week’s deluge.

More than 700 county residents and business owners had applied for federal disaster assistance by Wednesday, while 28 county roads remained closed by storm damage. County officials did not update their damage figures, but earlier estimates placed the destruction from this month’s storms at more than $50 million.

Agricultural Commissioner W. Earl McPhail said with lots of farmland still a muddy mess from the recent round of rains, it could be another two weeks before he can devise a more accurate crop-damage figure. His most recent estimate, before this week’s devastating storms, was $19 million.

McPhail warned that residents should soon feel the financial consequences of the El Nino-stoked rain season in the form of higher produce prices, since nearly all major California farm counties have felt the sting of the storms.

“It will be two or three weeks, and then the consumer is going to feel it,” he said.

Fields should continue to dry out with cool, clear weather expected through at least Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Just blocks from a Cedar Street apartment building that collapsed under a wall of mud Monday night, Ventura building inspectors--worried about further landslides--red-tagged a Jehovah’s Witnesses church along with two single-family homes and one unit of an apartment complex at 512 Cedar St. A red tag means a building is considered uninhabitable until further notice.

The actions came after at least two slides had encroached on the properties below, with one covering half of the church parking lot with a huge pile of dirt and plants, and another that dragged trees and utility poles as far as 100 feet before planting them between two homes.

“Just because the rain stopped doesn’t mean the slides stop,” said Bob Prodoehl, the city’s building department chief. “We were busy enough before this.”

Minister David Smith said the approximately 400 people who use the church five days a week will now have to find another place to meet. He felt fortunate, however, to have avoided a true disaster, considering that dozens of church members had been in the building until 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“I was parked right here last night, so my car and a lot of other cars would have been crushed if it happened earlier,” Smith said, pointing to a pile of sandbags barely visible below the mud and foliage. “This is affecting a lot of people. We’re going to have to scramble to find a new place.”

Farther down the street, Eric Werbowsky said he awoke Wednesday morning to the horrific sounds of tons of dirt sliding toward his home.

“Cracking, popping--it just mauled my toolshed,” he said of the landslide, which stopped just behind his guest house, leaving a hillside utility pole lying in his backyard. “That must be what a lava flow is like.

“We’re pondering the finer points of Vagabond [Inn] versus Doubletree [Hotel] right now,” he added.

At a Red Cross Shelter at Anacapa Middle School, 35 displaced people--many from the Cedar Street area--were scheduled to spend the night again Wednesday.

Throughout the county, 728 residents and businesses had applied for federal disaster aid through Wednesday--80 people on Tuesday alone--according to FEMA spokeswoman Patti Roberts.

The roads that remained closed included California 150 in the Upper Ojai between the Santa Barbara County line and Lake Casitas and the only road leading up to the Lake Piru Recreational Area, according to Sheriff’s Department spokesman Keith Parks.

A road washout, damage to a bridge and a landslide on California 150 combined to keep the Upper Ojai virtually isolated from the outside world, according to Caltrans spokesman Vincent Moreno.

“It’s a very difficult situation for lots of people,” he said.

About 20 people were isolated after the road leading to Lake Piru was washed away in two places, but the road could reopen as soon as today, said Fred Gientke of the United Water Conservation District, which owns the lake and dam.

Meanwhile, traffic on California 126 east of Piru will be limited to one lane in each direction for at least a week because of a road washout just before the Piru Creek bridge. And Metrolink commuters will not be able to catch the train in Camarillo or Oxnard until Monday at the earliest because of track damage.

In Santa Paula, residents on Harvey Court continued to clean up after a mudslide left their cul-de-sac covered in muck on Monday. Meanwhile, residents across town on Howie Court continued to worry after flood waters from a barranca behind their homes washed away some of their porches and even threatened some living quarters. City officials yellow-tagged homes--cautioning residents of unsafe conditions--in both areas, and red-tagged porches and a living room on Howie Court.

Lupe Medrano said she has called county flood-control officials as well as Santa Paula officials to determine who is responsible for failing to control the flooding that has left her family room dangling precariously over the edge of the stream.

“The city said it wasn’t their problem, flood control said it wasn’t their problem,” Medrano, 57, said as she peered at what remained of her porch. “We’re going in circles.

“It’s just getting worse and worse,” she added. “This house is eventually going to collapse. It’s really frustrating.”

An attorney for the city of Santa Paula toured Medrano’s neighborhood Wednesday to gauge the damage, but did not share his findings with residents, Medrano said.

“The problem there is that water in the barranca is cutting into the hillside on the east side of these houses and making a very unstable and potentially dangerous situation,” Santa Paula Fire Chief Paul Skeels said.

And after the floods come the plagues.

County officials have already warned people to be careful of rattlesnakes being washed from their lairs. And some local pest-control companies are responding to numerous reports of rats retreating into homes to flee flood water and the cool weather.

“This is the worst rat season I’ve ever seen and I’ve been in the business 10 years,” said Manny Perez, assistant manager of Stanley Pest Control in Ventura. “People are finding them in their homes, when they usually find them in their attics.”

Bustillo is a Times staff writer. Green is a correspondent. Correspondents Dawn Hobbs, Richard Warchol and Robert Gammon contributed to this story.