FLOODING REMAINS CONCERN VAL VERDE RESIDENTS FEEL ASSISTANCE SLOW.

Byline: Susan Abram and Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writers

VAL VERDE - One week after a massive storm flooded the Hilario family's back yard with more than 3 feet of heavy mud and debris, county workers arrived with equipment to help the family remove the sludge.

While grateful for the assistance, Raul Hilario - who with his father and others has been laboring for seven days, trying to dig out cars and remove the mud - can't help but feel that the county's response would have been swifter if Val Verde was a more affluent community.

``That's what I think, yeah,'' Hilario, 40, said Saturday after a four-man county crew arrived with a backhoe and loader. ``We called for help, but until today it has just been (the residents) who are working and digging.''

Landslides and flooding from recent torrential storms left many Val Verde residents isolated as mudflows clogged roads and water found its way into homes.

Hilario's father, Lupe, who bought the Sheridan Road home about 12 years ago, said he noticed the county equipment near his home Friday but did not see any county crews.

``They finally came about 2 o'clock today,'' Lupe Hilario said Saturday. ``They said they're very busy, working 24 hours a day. But we don't have nothing and we are doing all this work by ourselves. Now they are finally here to help us.''

County officials said Friday that crews were working for several days to clear mud from main roads in Val Verde.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich ``has committed assistance for the community,'' said Antonovich field deputy Millie Jones. ``Those crews are working seven days a week. The residents there have a lot of devastation in their back yards and the county has offered to help them.''

County officials met with more than 100 residents on Thursday during a civic association meeting to share information and assure them that their needs would be met.

``There were a lot of questions from people out here on being able to get some assistance,'' said resident and community leader Dan Nordenstrom. ``We're hoping to get some assistance in regard to flood control efforts.

``We don't know what kind of assistance we'll get. We're in a limbo state at this point,'' he said.

Nordenstrom said several families have been left homeless. Some houses were red-tagged, while others remained structurally sound but covered from wall to wall inside with mud and water.

He also said the small community could use a better flood control plan, one they have been asking for over the last 20 years.

``We are desperately in need of help,'' he said. ``We're basically waiting for contacts and hopefully some financing to assist out here to remedy our flood control issues. We hope that the county recognizes this.''

Nordenstrom said the county did step in with a drainage system when a federally funded bridge that crosses from Chiquito Canyon to San Martinez Road was installed a year ago. Without that drainage system, he said, the community would have been submerged.

But more needs to be done, he said.

``As it stands right now, time is of the essence,'' he said. ``Some residents are out of their homes. Others are living with water-drenched living areas. We really need some confirmation regarding financial assistance.''

Val Verde, a community of about 2,500 people nestled within canyons just 10 miles northwest of Valencia, also rests near the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, another concern for the community. ``We are concerned because we all live on septic systems and we don't know what it could mean to the entire community,'' he said.

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com