Ventura Landslide Slams Into 9 Homes : Disaster: ‘There was a big roar, and it moved like soft Jell-O,’ says one eyewitness in La Conchita. Residents got a warning when rocks began tumbling down.

A large section of mud and dirt ripped loose from a rain-soaked Ventura County hillside Saturday and smacked into the coastal community of La Conchita, crushing nine homes and confirming the worst fears of residents.

Three homes were completely buried beneath a mound of earth, but no injuries were reported and no one was missing. About 100 residents were evacuated while officials sought to determine if more landslides were likely.

Residents, who were urged to leave the small neighborhood last month, got a warning when rocks began tumbling down shortly after 2 p.m. Some were watching as minutes later the slope became a landslide that crashed onto Vista Del Rincon Drive.

“There was a big roar, and it moved like soft Jell-O,” said resident Norma Harrel. “It was pretty fast, but I never dreamed it would take those houses.”

Standing near a pile of earth that completely covered the house where he had lived with his girlfriend and daughter, Ruben Ortiz recounted his escape.

“I had just gotten out of the shower, and I just grabbed my little girl and ran outside,” Ortiz said. “My girlfriend looked back up the hill and a tree disappeared. It just fell down.”

Glen Sanderson was asleep in his trailer on Vista Del Rincon when he was awakened by a noise outside his back window.

He saw rocks tumbling down the hill and ran outside, going back inside moments later to retrieve his jacket and wallet. Just then the trailer groaned under the weight of rocks bearing down.

“Then I ran,” Sanderson said. “That’s the best thing I did.”

The slide came after weeks of growing concern among residents who feared that their homes could be buried by the unstable hillside. They appealed to the county for help, threatened lawsuits and debated who might be responsible if a slide occurred.

Hank Alziani, a 13-year resident whose home escaped damage Saturday, blamed the county for allowing houses to be built in what he called a dangerous spot.

“The lots were set up by the county, and in order to build homes people had to get permits, plan checks and inspections before building,” he said. “I don’t see how the county can now say they don’t have any responsibility.”

Standing at the base of the hill Saturday, Robert W. Anderson, principal engineer for a company hired by the county to study the stability of the hillside, said his firm had predicted a slide where the failure occurred.

“This is exactly where we thought it would come down,” he said.

As a steady rain fell, emergency workers evacuated about a third of the 190 homes in the tight-knit community along U.S. 101 near the Santa Barbara County line. A handful of residents checked in for the night at a Red Cross shelter at the Ventura County fairgrounds.

Officials said an additional 10 to 15 homes were in immediate danger, and up to two more inches of rain were forecast overnight.

“The rain is only going to exacerbate the problem,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Buttel. “We’re very concerned about that.”

U.S. 101 and a Southern Pacific train line that runs along the freeway remained open after the slide. An oil pipeline was sheared in the slide but no petroleum was spilled, said Charles Cappel, director of Pacific Operators Offshore, which owns the pipeline.

“The line itself had no oil in it when this occurred,” Cappel said.

At the Red Cross evacuation center, Lisa Brown vowed that she, her husband and their 18-month-old daughter would not return.

Brown said that in recent months her family had become so concerned about the danger of a slide they had planned to move. After Saturday’s slide, her husband immediately went to Santa Barbara to look for a house, Brown said.

“I would never move back” to La Conchita, she said. The slide “was our worst nightmare.”

Some residents say they have lived in constant fear that the hillside would fall. A deep gash in the center of the hill began as a tiny slide seven years ago, growing deeper and more threatening over time. County officials last month recommended that some homes be evacuated as a precaution.

“You plan, you do everything you can, and then it happens and happens quick,” said Mary Lou Olson, whose house was spared damage. “I’m just grateful it didn’t happen in the middle of the night.”

Ventura County Counsel James L. McBride said the county did everything it could to warn residents in the months prior to Saturday’s disaster. County geologists said preventing the slide was geologically impossible, McBride said.

“The people were well-educated and were well aware that this could happen,” he said. “We told everybody it could happen, but everybody was hoping against hope that it wouldn’t.”

Even before Saturday, debate had raged over who would be responsible for damages if the hill came down.

Not us, said owners of the homes directly below, who pointed to county officials and the ranch that owns the land that slid. Not us, said county officials who allowed homes to be built since the 1920s in the shadow of the ever-changing coastal cliff. No comment, said operators of the La Conchita Ranch.

“We have many of these situations around the county which are caused by acts of God: rain, earthquakes, fires and floods causing creeks to wash out property, landslides that cover property and things like that,” McBride said before the slide. “The role of government isn’t to come in and solve all the problems that happen on private property.”

Times staff writer Mack Reed and community correspondents Duncan Martell and Ira E. Stoll contributed to this story.