RESIDENTS PULL TOGETHER GREEN VALLEY NEIGHBORLINESS AIDS SURVIVAL.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

GREEN VALLEY - For three days, the thousand or so residents of this mountain hamlet were cut off by raging mountain creeks and mudslides.

Homes flooded, roads washed out and residents were advised to boil their drinking water because of broken pipes. Propane, firewood, animal feed and groceries were running short.

``It was pretty scary up in this area,'' said Betty Young, vice chairman of the Angeles Forest Valley Lakes Fire Safety Council, formed after Green Valley survived a 2002 brush fire that forced its evacuation.

But Green Valley residents say everybody pitched in to help each other, like during the 2002 brush fire and like they always do in need.

When mud began flowing Sunday down a canyon from Grass Mountain, straight at Randy White's San Francisquito Canyon Road home, a platoon of neighbors quickly appeared.

``My wife and I were trying to keep it out. About 10 minutes later there were 10 or 15 people helping us and two tractors,'' said White, a 37-year- old plumber who has lived in Green Valley four years.

Just down the road, piling up sandbags to protect the Heart N Soul Cafe he and his wife have run for five years, Warren BeMiller had the same experience.

``People coming by who saw me working would stop and help. This town will pitch in and help,'' said BeMiller.

The BeMillers' 3-foot-tall wall of sandbags stopped a mudflow about 2 feet thick, but a couple of inches seeped inside the patio. BeMiller was shoveling that out Wednesday and his wife Kathay had the cafe open for business.

``On Sunday and Monday mud started coming down that canyon and just did this area. There was nothing you could do about it,'' Warren BeMiller said.

Clustered on a bit of private property completely surrounded by Angeles National Forest, Green Valley has a fire station, a store with two gasoline pumps, a fire station, a small community building, several other businesses and a few hundred homes on a grid of narrow oak-shaded streets.

The town was reconnected to the rest of the world by Wednesday, when it was possible to get there from the Antelope Valley by muddy, slippery San Francisquito Canyon Road and Lake Elizabeth Road.

But the town's connections to Santa Clarita - Bouquet Canyon Road and San Francisquito Road southbound - could stay closed for weeks or longer because of massive washouts.

Halfway between Palmdale and Santa Clarita, Green Valley residents say they usually shop at Antelope Valley stores but work in Santa Clarita or southward. The washouts could add an hour or more to commutes.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County road crews were bulldozing sand and mud off major roads into piles 4 or 5 feet tall. Townsfolk were shoveling mud from their property and wondering how they would get their cars out.

``I can't get my car out. I can't get gas. I've got a huge ditch,'' said resident Terrie Brewer.

Her husband was able to get his truck out and left for work Wednesday morning, but her Honda is too low to cross the ditch, Brewer said.

With a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle, Green Valley County Water District board president Jeff McCracken rode around town carrying safety-helmeted daughter Melissa, 10, and son Chris, 8, who were clutching sheaves of blue warning notices.

The children hopped off the ATV to deliver the warning notices to each home and business, advising people to boil or disinfect their drinking water because broken pipes may have let water back flow from residences into main lines.

``We don't think there's anything in the lines at all,'' McCracken said. ``Anytime there's a depressurization there's a possibility.''

Water test results are due back early next week to confirm there's no contamination, he said.

At Green Valley Store, stranded residents bought up all the bottled water, fire wood, fresh vegetables and other supplies.

Clerk Steve Awad couldn't get home to Canyon Country.

``I was stuck here five days. I slept at some friends' house,'' Awad said.

The friend, appraiser Don Munger, drove his big four-wheel-drive truck to Lancaster on Monday and Tuesday to buy supplies for the store. Because her cafe was closed during the storm, Kathay BeMiller brought over her supplies of fresh milk and other perishables to the store.

``Everybody's like one team that comes together,'' Awad said.

The storm was the worst Warren BeMiller has seen in 20 years in the area, worse than the El Nino storms of 1997-98.

``This didn't stop. Every night you'd here it all night long, just pouring rain,'' BeMiller said.

Rainfall measured 18.7 inches Friday through Tuesday morning in Green Valley, according to the local water district's rain gauge. Added to the 21.2 inches that fell in October and December, that puts rainfall on track to beat the record 56 inches that fell in the El Nino year of 1997-1998.

Despite the brush fire and the flood, residents say they have no intention of leaving.

``It's better for my kids,'' said resident Chief Bush, who with her husband Tyler commute to jobs at a Tujunga school where she is a librarian and he is a campus aid. ``It's safer. My kids are safe here. Everyone watches your kids.''

Said Warren BeMiller: ``It's a neat little place. We all care for each other. Don't do anything wrong because we'll all talk about you. It's fun being up here.''

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Above, Warren BeMiller stands next to the sandbags that protected his Heart N Soul restaurant in Green Valley. The cafe was open for business on Wednesday. Left, Juan Cuevas, 14, digs out a Dumpster that is covered with mud. Below, a county truck goes north on San Francisquito Canyon Road, which had to be closed because of massive washouts.

(4 -- ran in AV edition only) From left, Kodee Ramey, 12, and her friend Amy Plaisted, 11, dig out the mud-covered driveway in front of Ramey's home on Spunky Canyon Road in Green Valley.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer