2 Died After Warning Was Ignored

As Southern Californians braced for another punishing rainstorm that could unleash fresh floods as soon as today, state officials on Monday said they had urged operators of a Devore campsite to move trailers off the property six weeks before flash floods there killed two people.

The California Geological Survey had identified the Kampgrounds of America trailer camp as posing the highest risk for loss of life and property after surveying hundreds of sites in the fire-ravaged San Bernardino Mountains.

Tom Spittler, a senior engineering geologist with the geological survey, said his office warned the campsite manager in person and in a letter. The trailers, however, remained, and on Christmas Day, raging floodwaters killed the manager and a visitor from Kansas. More than 50 other residents had to be rescued.

Even as details of the warning emerged Monday, weary federal, state and county emergency crews worked through the night to try and mop up last week’s devastation before more rains fell. The Christmas Day storm triggered massive flooding that left 13 dead and one still missing on the charred slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains, which were stripped bare in the October wildfires.

“If we receive the rain that is forecasted, there is a strong possibility of severe flooding and flash floods,” said Tracey Martinez of the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

The California Geological Survey looked at flood danger, along with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, after the Old and Grand Prix fires raced through San Bernardino County. Of the hundreds of sites surveyed, they identified the Devore campsite and seven properties around Lytle Creek and northwest San Bernardino as locations posing a high risk to life and property.

At some of those sites, the state suggested ways to reduce flood danger, such as placing sandbags and digging ditches. But the danger at the Devore campsite was so severe, Spittler said, that the office could not suggest any immediate mitigation.

Officials were alarmed because wildfires had burned practically all the vegetation around the campsite. They found that an active channel about 80 feet wide could carry water, mud and fairly large boulders directly into parked trailers, according to a geological survey report.

“We told [the manager] the best thing to do was evacuate,” Spittler said.

It’s unclear why the trailers were not removed. The park manager, Janice Stout-Bradley, died in the flash flood on Christmas Day.

John Gordon, one of the owners of the campground, said, “We didn’t get any notification from anybody at all, as far as I know.”

If he or his manager had gotten a notice or recommendation, he said, they would have heeded it.

“We would follow whatever police, fire or any other agency says to do. We rely on their expertise and we follow what they say,” Gordon said.

He said they did try to evacuate the park Christmas Day, but the road below was washed out.

National Weather Service forecasters in the Southland warned Monday that the advancing storm could cause flash flooding this morning in the burn areas of Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties. Authorities warned residents in those areas to prepare to evacuate, and not necessarily expect early warning from police or fire officials.

After pleas for help from strapped San Bernardino County officials, the Army Corps of Engineers dispatched emergency convoys of bulldozers and dump trucks to empty a crucial line of catch basins packed to the brim with logs, mud, boulders and water from the storm five days ago.

“We need to do everything we can in the event of mass flooding to get to locations in an expedient manner and to save lives,” Martinez said. But she warned area residents that “we can’t predict how much rain will fall or where.... If you do not feel safe, you need to leave.”

The heaviest rain was expected before dawn, with as many as 3 inches predicted on fire-scarred mountain slopes. Snow was predicted above 5,000 feet at mountain resort levels, dipping to 4,000 feet -- low enough to snarl traffic on Interstate 5 -- in the Tehachapi Mountains.

Officials were most concerned in San Bernardino County, where the bodies of all but one of 14 people missing after last week’s floods were recovered before the search was suspended at nightfall Monday.

Hours earlier, recovery crews, with dogs trained to detect cadavers, found the body of 8-month-old Jeremiah Monzon, son of Jorge and Clara Monzon, in rubble at the church camp near where the bodies of his parents were found earlier. Jorge Monzon was the caretaker of the camp.

The only person to remain missing was Edgar David Mesa, 12, of San Bernardino. His father’s body was found Friday. In all, the tragedy touched four extended families, many of them cousins, brothers and sisters.

The Sheriff’s Department halted the search Monday night until the approaching storm passes.

“No one wants to leave a scene like this knowing there’s still one soul out there not to be reunited with his mother,” said Deputy Coroner Rocky Shaw.

Chip Patterson, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said the family of the still-missing boy was understanding, noting that they toured the area Sunday.

“Once they saw the area, they realized the extent of the damage,” Patterson said. “They realized finding someone alive was not very probable. That was a comfort, to say goodbye and to have a prayer at the site.” Although today’s flash flood threat is serious, it could be worse, said Ryan Kittle, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. Kittle said the center of the storm should bypass most of Southern California to the west, dumping the heaviest precipitation onto the ocean instead of the burn areas.

But officials noted grimly that last week’s storm was a moderate one that would not normally have wreaked destruction. Instead, this fall’s wildfires left a 32-mile-long swath of denuded slopes stretching from Claremont to east of San Bernardino. Desert communities such as Yucca Valley were also at risk, officials warned.

A critical line of defense was lost in the Christmas Day storm, said Vana Olson, assistant director of the San Bernardino County Public Works Department. Nearly all of 30 debris basins between the charred foothills and residential communities below are clogged.

Rain gauges in key channels were to be checked through the night by emergency personnel. If rain falls too hard, too fast, it could trigger evacuations of whole residential neighborhoods, authorities said.

In canyon and foothill areas most at risk -- including Devore, San Antonio Heights, Lytle Creek and remote areas above Rancho Cucamonga -- county fire officials went door to door warning residents to stockpile food and water, and be ready to pack up and flee if necessary.

But everyone should be on alert, officials said. Sierra Avenue in San Bernardino and other low-lying urban areas could be flooded, and houses on high spots could be hit by mud if they lie near burned areas.

“Even people who consider themselves high and dry should be concerned if there’s a burned slope behind their house, or a few blocks away,” Olson said. “People should be concerned from the L.A. County line to the Seven Oaks Dam.”

Even after last week’s deaths, many in the risk areas said they would stay at home if possible.

Marion Kamberg, 67, moved to Lytle Creek, one of the areas of highest risk after the Old fire, eight years ago from Inglewood.

“I had that dream of getting away from the mess of the city,” she said. “It’s the last cheap place to live in California. But, boy, it comes with a price.”

Kamberg plans to wait out the storm in her house.

“I can only do my best, and if it comes, it comes,” she said.

The retired clerical worker lives alone in her small house, which backs up against a drainage ditch. She has piled up dozens of sandbags but needed help lining them up between her house and the ditch. Monday afternoon, several neighbors got to work helping her. After they finished, Kamberg thanked them and offered beer. They moved on to help others.

In Southern California, rain and snow should taper off this afternoon, forecasters said.

“There should be a nice little break New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day -- cool but dry -- before the possibility of some more rain on Friday and Saturday,” Kittle said.

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Times staff writers Janet Wilson, Seema Mehta and Eric Malnic contributed to this report.