A YEAR AFTER MUDSLIDE, TOWN HOLDS ITS GROUND.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew and Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writers

LA CONCHITA - A year after a mudslide killed 10 of their neighbors, La Conchita residents gathered Saturday to mourn their friends and to pray for their seaside town.

More than 200 people, including a phalanx of media, assembled on Santa Barbara Street next to a makeshift memorial beside a cross-studded, towering earthen mound - the remains of the Jan. 10, 2005 mudslide.

``In your sorrow, you are remembering them as they would have wished: with your unbroken faith and in the celebration of their lives,'' Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, told the crowd.

For 30-year-resident Janell Beck, Saturday's ceremony was harder than the day of the mudslide, when her focus was on helping others.

``You just get caught up in doing whatever needs to be done,'' said Beck, who lost four longtime friends. ``You don't cry; the adrenalin kicks in. Today, there's nothing to be done. You just feel your emotions and cry for everyone and hope we get help.''

Geologists have called the sandy bluff above La Conchita - whose name means ``the little shell'' in Spanish - one of the most slide-prone areas in the nation.

But the 300 or so free spirits who live there want to save one of California's last coastal communities affordable to the middle-class.

``The 10 beautiful souls who lost their lives here, they loved La Conchita,'' said Rodleen Getsic, 30. ``So do we. This is home.''

Heavy rains in 1995 collapsed the bluff, covering nine homes in 10 minutes. No one was hurt. Ten years later, during Los Angeles' second- wettest year on record, the bluff slid again.

In 20 seconds on Jan. 10, 2005, 10 people - including three sisters ages 2 to 10 - were buried under 450,000 tons of soil.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to make their community safe, but not a dime has been spent to shore up the cliff.

Though the Federal Emergency Management Agency pledged $5 million this winter to buttress a Laguna Beach hillside where 20 homes were damaged and destroyed, La Conchita residents complain FEMA has done nothing to protect La Conchita. The fix is estimated to cost $5 million.

The holdup, say homeowners, are Ventura County attorneys who say they won't request state or federal funds until expected lawsuits are filed and litigated, which could take years.

``They've done nothing so far,'' said Mike Bell, president of the La Conchita Community Association.

Meanwhile, residents are staying put. Of the 171 homes in La Conchita, only two homeowners took federal offers to move - and they kept their homes for summer use.

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Seen through the broken window of a house where last year's mudslide stopped, La Conchita residents gather by a hillside memorial for the 10 victims of the Jan. 10, 2005, slide. More than 200 people convened Saturday to mourn the deaths, with some voicing complaints that little support has come from the state or FEMA to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.

(2) A child brings daisies to a memorial for those who died in last year's mudslide in La Conchita. Of the 10 victims, three were sisters ranging in age from 2 to 10.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer