Yorba Linda battered, not beaten

Enough already. That seems to be the general consensus among residents in the fire-ravaged and now mudslide-threatened neighborhoods of Yorba Linda. So when the latest mandatory evacuation order went out Monday morning, many people decided to stay put.

“Once you leave, you can’t come back,” said Michele Zenk, who like many of her neighbors in the Box Canyon area has been through this drill too many times to count. “This is not a good time of year to get stuck in your home.”

With her husband out of town and her two children at school, Zenk planned to wrap Christmas gifts, make a lasagna and juggle other holiday chores, all while running into the backyard to make sure the drains around the property were not clogged.

“In fire, I leave. For mud, I don’t know if we’re going to have much more of a problem. Hopefully, the worst of it is over,” she said. “You know what? I have a house, so I don’t have any complaints.”

Given what residents of this foothill community have been through during the last year -- earthquakes, fire, debris flows -- their stoicism and cheerfulness seem remarkable.

Monday’s storm marked the third time in less than a month that the Bauerle family had been asked to evacuate their San Antonio Road home. Jack Bauerle stayed behind to keep watch, but his wife and two daughters headed to a relative’s home -- taking all the Christmas presents with them, just in case.

“It’s dicey to say the least,” he said. “We’re not out of the woods yet.”

The two-story home that Ken Kramer has owned for 10 years has also been under evacuation orders three times. On Monday morning, the 49-year-old and three friends, clad in rubber boots and rain pants, stood in a neighbor’s garage with shovels at the ready to clear mud from storm drains.

As the rain fell steadily, the men surveyed the hillside for cracks and pointed out where in years past entire chunks of slope had collapsed. Another friend stayed inside, monitoring weather forecasts on the computer.

Over the last month, the garages on these suburban streets have become a headquarters of sorts in the anti-mudslide effort. Neighbors have banded together to protect their homes from catastrophe, investing thousands of dollars and dozens of hours of labor.

In Box Canyon, Jay Hock and his teenage son worked with two neighbors to keep silt and mud from clogging a city drain at the foot of a gully on Foxtail Drive.

Taylor Hock, 15, took the day off from school and stood shin deep in muck as he cleared the area around a drain about as wide as an oil drum. Neighbor Bruce Williford worked nearby clearing mud that had piled up around sandbags.

“We’re trying to make room for more silt,” Jay Hock said. “It’s preventive maintenance. We’re doing the city’s work right now. They probably won’t be here for two weeks.”

The Hocks’ 3,100-square-foot home backs up to a 400-foot-tall hill. When the fires came through, the property was surrounded by flames but survived damage.

Since then, the elder Hock said, he has been in his backyard every night, hydroseeding the hill, moving sandbags, clearing silt from drains and mopping up the mud and debris that finds its way into his yard.

“Our house is in a high danger area,” he said. “We’re the first in line to get hit.”

Kramer said he has spent $4,000 on concrete barriers, sandbags and bulldozer rentals. He and his neighbors placed hundreds of sandbags in ravines uphill to direct future mud flow away from their houses.

The forces of nature -- fire, rain and mud -- have showed the community how interconnected their fates are.

“If we don’t protect the house at the end of the street, our houses aren’t safe,” said one man who declined to give his name because he works in law enforcement.

In the face of Monday’s heavy rainfall, their efforts seemed to be working.

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tony.barboza@latimes.com

christine.hanley@latimes.com

Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.