Calif. mudslides wipe out homes

  Jonathan T. Lovitt ; Steve Marshall

  03/06/1995

  USA Today

  FINAL

  Page 03A

  (Copyright 1995)

  LA CONCHITA, Calif. - This typical California beach town, popularized by the

  Beach Boys' tune Surfin' U.S.A., Sunday remained imperiled by devastating

  mudslides.

  As rain continued, authorities ordered more than 100 residents to leave their

  homes.

  "If you stay . . . you're trying to commit suicide," Cmdr. Dick Purnell of the

  Ventura County Sheriff's Office told a "town meeting" in a tent.

  The slides, which began Saturday, have taken nine of the town's 182 houses. No

  one's been seriously hurt.

  Residents said geologists warned them of the danger last month. "Some of us

  thought maybe it won't happen this decade, we thought they could be wrong,"

  said David Derhammer, 33. Derhammer, his wife, Kris, 28, and their son,

  Matthew, 4, are staying with friends.

  He said the mud flow "slowly pushed houses over, you hear the timber cracking

  and the windows breaking."

  Not everyone left the area. Don Chiapuzio, 63, stood nearby, watching and

  waiting in the heavy rain since 6 a.m.

  Cascading mud had knocked his house off its foundation.

  "My house will never be lived in again; would you live under those hills?" he

  asked.

  Geologist Jim Otousa was one of the scientists who flew overhead in helicopters

  to check out the fissures.

  "We can anticipate some more mud flows of this size or greater," he said.

  GRAPHIC,b/w, USA TODAY (Map); PHOTO,color,Bob Riha

  Jr.,Gamma-Liaison; PHOTO,Mark J. Terrill,AP