Swollen O.C. Creek Routs 4,000

About 4,000 people voluntarily evacuated their homes Tuesday in San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point after large portions of a concrete embankment along San Juan Creek broke apart and were swept away by heavy storm runoff.

No one was reported injured and no homes were damaged by the failure of about 1,300 feet of the flood control channel. But authorities feared that saturated soil on the bank would give way and allow the creek to rush toward neighborhoods.

“We are very much in danger. We’re keeping our fingers crossed with the break in the weather,” Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said. “The river is rushing. It’s incredibly fast -- a raging river.”

Sleepy San Juan Creek swelled to a height of nearly 20 feet with the deluge and began eating away at the embankment Sunday, at a bend about 1 1/2 miles north of Doheny State Beach, where the water’s force was especially strong.

By early Tuesday, big chunks of the wall began to give way. The creek, about 60 feet from homes, swallowed a portion of a bike path.

Also in the area, flooding sparked closure of several roads, including a 10-mile stretch of Ortega Highway that extends from 9 miles east of Interstate 5 to 4 miles west of the Riverside County line. It will be shut down completely for at least seven days to make repairs.

Before dawn, county public works crews, responding to the creek’s rise, began dumping tons of rock and dirt along the creek to prevent further erosion. By 3 p.m., the creek’s water level had begun to fall under sunny skies, and authorities allowed people to return to their homes.

“The first step is to place the rock while the water is flowing as an immediate fix to prevent the levee from washing away,” said Herb Nakasone, county director of public works.

County officials have estimated that it will take a crane two or three days to finish fortifying the repair, Nakasone said.

Once boulders are positioned, the levee should hold until the water recedes and dry weather permits the pouring of cement over the rocks and in between crevices, he said.

The day started out in a panic. Celerina Betancourt, 43, was getting ready for work at 7 a.m. when she heard police over a loudspeaker advising her and her neighbors to leave the Rancho del Avion Mobile Home Park.

She and her 16-year-old daughter, Crystal, gathered legal documents, family photos, their dog and cat and were gone in less than half an hour.

“We were nervous, panicking and concerned,” Betancourt said. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Chris Romero, 50, was awakened before dawn by the sound of trucks dumping rocks along the creek not far from his San Juan Capistrano home.

After several days of torrential rain, “everything seemed to be OK until I looked at the riverbed this morning,” Romero said. “It’s slowly been sliding.”

He and his wife, Nancy, 51, loaded up their car with valuables and stuffed several suitcases, placing them by the front door.

“It’s awful. I’ve never seen it this bad,” Romero said of the creek.

Nancy Romero took photographs of their home’s interior -- just in case.

“We’re just watching and waiting,” she said.

Three swift-water rescue teams, a helicopter, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the area as a precaution -- and to keep the curious away.

The American Red Cross opened an emergency center at the San Juan Capistrano Community Center, where scores of people gathered for meals and the latest news.

Meantime, the Board of Supervisors voted to declare an emergency, which allows the county to apply for state funds to pay for repairs to the creek and begin work immediately without going through the standard approval process.

The estimated cost of a temporary repair to San Juan Creek is about $500,000, said Diane Thomas-Plunk, a county spokeswoman. About 2,500 tons of rock was used Tuesday to shore up the embankment.

Supervisor Tom Wilson said that even with fair weather now predicted, heavy runoff is expected for several days and will continue to erode the creek bank.

“More will continue to go, even with the welcome sunshine,” Wilson said. “It’s a very serious situation.”

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Times staff writers Stuart Pfeifer and David Reyes contributed to this report.