MEMORIAL PLAN ANGERS VETERANS.

Byline: David Greenberg Staff Writer

SANTA PAULA - A new plan to add a designation to Highway 126 that would honor some 460 people who perished in a flood 72 years ago has drawn the ire of Korean War veterans, for whom the highway is already named.

The Santa Paula City Council is scheduled Monday to discuss a proposal by the St. Francis Dam Memorial Committee - named for the dam that burst decades ago - to rename the 54-mile stretch of road after the victims of the flood.

``It won't be long before anybody who survived it will not be around,'' said Mary Alice Henderson, chairwoman of the 10-member committee. ``It was an enormous flood. It was horrendous. Some of the bodies were never found. It is the second-worst disaster in California history in lives lost and property damage destroyed.''

The dam collapsed in the pre-dawn hours of March 12, 1928, sending the deluge down San Francisquito Canyon near Saugus and west through the Santa Clara River Valley, causing roughly $50 million damage and killing more than 500 people before cascading into the ocean in Ventura.

Although acknowledging that the tragedy deserves recognition, Korean War veterans' activist Joe Strifler said he is infuriated to learn that the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway might have a shared designation.

``The Korean War has been called the forgotten war,'' said the retired Marine sergeant and Valencia resident. ``That's the only thing in the whole area that's dedicated to Korean War veterans. We don't even want to share the designation. It's sacred ground for the Korean War veterans. They should name a lake or park or something after the victims that drowned.''

The highway was designated in honor of the war veterans nearly a decade ago.

Strifler said he will voice his opposition to the council on Monday.

No vote will be taken on the measure at that meeting, said Assistant City Clerk Josie Herrera.

Ultimately, a new highway designation would need local, county and state approval.

The proposal, created at the committee's bimonthly meeting in February, follows a five-year plan to put memorials at the dam's site in San Francisquito Canyon and four populated areas that endured the flood's wrath.

The flood took more lives than any California disaster except the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Henderson said.

Life-sized monuments honoring those who saved residents from the flood would be strategically placed at new rest stops along Highway 126 at Rancho Camulos and at Fillmore City Hall, in downtown Santa Paula opposite the train depot and at a yet-to-be-determined location in Saticoy.

Each would cost $50,000 and would be paid for through contributions, corporate sponsorship and some tax revenues, Henderson said.

She said she would like to have the shared designation and monuments in place by 2003 - the 75th anniversary of the flood.