Slide’s Survivors Weigh Risks

Over the din of heavy machinery in their seaside hamlet, some residents of La Conchita returned Saturday despite the risk of another mudslide, while others packed to leave for a while or for good.

“It’s going to be tough, it’s not going to be easy, but we’ll stay here as long as we can,” said Bob Hart, 75, standing outside the two-story Bakersfield Avenue home he has lived in for a decade.

His family came back Saturday morning for the first time since being evacuated after days of powerful storms led to Monday’s massive mudslide, which killed 10 people and destroyed 13 homes.

Hart’s adult son Randy brought a generator to power a television and a few lamps until electricity is restored.

But Rebecca Mercer, a 43-year-old mother of five sons, was busily loading vehicles with clothes, appliances and other belongings to take to a new home she has found to rent in Carpinteria.

Mercer had moved to La Conchita in April, and her four-bedroom rental -- about five feet from the edge of slide area -- is one of 23 homes red-tagged as uninhabitable. A hairline crack in the ceiling divides the house down the center.

“It’s a nice community, the people are friendly. I’m going to miss it a lot, but there’s no way I could live here again,” Mercer said.

“If something were to happen to my boys, I could never live with myself.”

The decision to stay or leave weighed heavily last week on the occupants of the town’s nearly 200 homes. Officials have said it could be up to a week before electricity and gas were turned back on, and it could be several weeks before running water is restored.

“That’s too difficult when you have kids,” said Jim Frew, who lives with his wife, Ellen, and three of their children.

Though their Santa Paula Avenue residence escaped damage, they plan to stay in a friend’s house while they search for a temporary place to rent in Carpinteria where Ellen works as a teacher’s assistant.

“We were very fortunate, but we’re very worried about that hill,” said Frew, who expected that the family would move back once the cleanup was complete.

On Saturday, backhoes, loaders and several excavators chewed through the 2,700 tons of dirt and debris that had been cleared last week, first in the search for survivors and then to recover bodies.

Battalion Chief Gary Hart, with the Ventura County Fire Protection District, said 30 dump trucks were on hand to haul away debris to the Toland Road landfill in Santa Paula and another in Buellton.

About 40 La Conchita residents gathered in a pocket park on Surfside Street to establish an organization to handle charitable donations and to petition Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make good on his pledge to help families return to their homes.

“We have a small window of opportunity to keep our hands in the governor’s hand. If we don’t take it, then shame, shame on us,” said Mike Bell, 57, who was elected chairman of the group.

Though the governor changed his position Friday to urge caution before returning, Bell suggested to his neighbors that they had two weeks to send numerous letters -- “and e-mail, if we ever get any electricity” -- to Sacramento seeking financial assistance to stabilize the hill.

After a 1995 slide destroyed nine homes in La Conchita, the county erected a $400,000 wood-and-steel retaining wall, but it was designed to control only minor slides and mudflows.

At the time, the cost of securing the unstable hillside was estimated at $30 million to $50 million.

Julio Varela, 53, was helping Annelle Beebe clean the refrigerator of the Vista del Rincon Drive home she has lived in for 24 years.

“We’re really happy the governor came out and said he’d help us,” he said.

Their undamaged home sits directly below the hillside, so Varela said the couple would find another primary residence and use the one in La Conchita as a weekend retreat, but only on sunny days.

“It’s our little nest, we can’t let go,” he said. “Right now, it’s worth zero. Nobody would want to buy it. It’s more of a liability than anything else.

“But we shared the most precious moments of our lives here.”

Next door, artist and musician Larry Mancini, whose day job is as an offshore oil platform operator, lost a 2001 Ford Taurus to the slide.

“It looked like Godzilla had stepped on it,” he said.

His home, made of concrete cinderblock, held up much better. But because it was red-tagged, he intended to move in with his girlfriend in Ventura.

Nevertheless, he hoped to return to La Conchita, which he praised for its blue-collar vibe and affordable beachside living.

Mancini packed as many paintings, clothes and books as he could fit into his white Geo Metro.

Before he left, Mancini found a pair of dress shoes that would match his dark suit.

“We’ve got funerals coming up,” he said.