Floodwaters Recede, Residnets Take Over : West: As officials tally mounting losses to two ravaged piers, some weary homeowners brace for more showers.

As west Ventura County residents returned to flood-ravaged homes Wednesday, Ventura officials doubled repair estimates for the city’s pier, which lost more pilings when heavy storms hurled large chunks of debris into the wooden structure.

Meanwhile, residents in the Ojai Valley and Santa Paula were still reeling from Tuesday’s storm as they began the tiresome task of cleaning out mud-clogged houses and assessing thousands of dollars worth of storm damage.

Along Ventura’s beaches, Gargantuan mounds of logs, tires and other debris littered the coastline, remnants of the runoff from the raging Ventura River.

Some of the piles were more than 15 feet wide and seven feet tall, and curious onlookers crowded the beaches, examining the floating rubble and looking in awe at the monstrous waves that were pounding the Ventura Pier.

“There’s piles of stuff taller than me,” said Kelly Salerno, rummaging through the debris with her husband Rick and sons Justin, 13, and Derek, 11. “It’s just crazy.”

A few surfers even braved the unruly waves despite warnings from state park rangers to avoid the water.

“There’s a lot of loose pilings,” said 33-year-old Troy Taylor, taking a break after surfing beside the pier. “It’s kind of out of control. The ocean still hasn’t settled. But it’s a rush.”

Ron Calkins, Ventura’s director of public works, said city officials have no idea how they will remove the debris littering the city’s beaches.

“I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon,” Calkins said. He said the city has about $50,000 set aside for beach maintenance this year, but storm cleanup will clearly cost much more than that.

At the pier, a plank-by-plank inspection revealed that 53 pilings are missing or badly damaged--30 more than on Monday, the last time the pier was checked. And 31 additional pilings have been knocked loose and are vulnerable to washing out to sea.

Calkins said the additional damage is a major setback to repairs that were under way. He said the projected cost of repairing the pier is now at least $300,000, twice the previous estimate.

Because of the most recent damage, repair crews must now start over at the entrance of the pier, replacing damaged pilings row by row.

“It’s frustrating. We see the light at the end of the tunnel and we get set back again,” Calkins said.

In Port Hueneme, where crews have worked for a week to save the crippled pier, powerful waves caused a sagging portion of the structure to drop another two feet, said Denis Murrin, a city supervisor. One leg of the T-shaped pier is on the verge of total collapse, he said.

“At this point, it’s amazing that it’s still here,” Murrin said. Repair costs could top $500,000, he said.

Tuesday’s storm took its toll on county residents, especially in the Ojai Valley where floodwaters forced evacuations and threatened homes.

“We’re just depressed and sore,” Ojai resident Jean Brown said, recalling a grueling 24 hours in which she fled her Creek Road home before rising waters plowed through her garage and flipped a nearby trailer on its side.

Homeowners along the Ventura River and its tributaries were hopeful that the worst had passed, but forecasters warned that another storm is expected to strike Saturday.

Along Santa Ana Boulevard north of Casitas Springs, residents were gearing up for more showers. Sandbags and pumps were still in position Wednesday, remnants of Tuesday’s efforts to contain flooding at Coyote Creek.

“We’re not taking them down until this thing is over,” said carpenter John Hargett.

In Oxnard, streets that had been inundated with floodwaters were almost dry, except for pools of water collected on some roads.

On Wooley Road between Rose and Rice avenues, Tuesday’s storm toppled a tree that subsequently knocked down power lines. The stretch of road is expected to be reopened and electricity to the area restored by this morning.

In Santa Paula, where Richard Rosales dramatically rescued his mother from five feet of mud inside her home Tuesday, family members spent Wednesday carting off what possessions they could.

“The waters came through the whole house,” said Christina Rosales, Richard’s mother. “We lost everything.”

Friends and neighbors of the Rosales family, which farms six acres of oranges on the Faulkner Road property, used bulldozers to scoop away tons of mud and debris that remained around his land.

“I just found out I don’t have any flood insurance,” said Rosales, knee-deep in muddy water.

Residents of the Arroyo Mobile Home Park in Casitas Springs, many of whom were shuttled to safety Tuesday by sheriff’s deputies, returned to their homes Wednesday to find virtually no damage.

Carolyn Wall, however, did not evacuate, choosing instead to stay in her mobile home. But she did not sleep much.

“We were definitely worried,” said Wall, who watched the Ventura River rise Tuesday. “We packed a truck and got ready to leave, and we haven’t unpacked it yet.”

Residents on Creek Road in Ojai were hit particularly hard by the storm. San Antonio Creek, a major feeder stream to the Ventura River, crested its banks early Tuesday morning, threatening homes along the road and whisking one abandoned house downstream.

The creek also swept away a mobile home, spinning the 40-foot trailer “like it was in a drain” before slamming it into a neighbor’s garage, said owner Alice DeBerry. She returned to the creek-side location where her home once stood Wednesday to salvage valuables.

Ojai resident David Ross, DeBerry’s neighbor, evacuated his home Tuesday morning when the creek’s rising waters threatened to sweep it away too.

“We fought it until we just couldn’t handle it,” Ross said Wednesday, standing ankle-deep in mud in his back yard. “It just went crashing through here.”

Times staff writer Miguel Bustillo and correspondents Julie Fields and Matthew Mosk contributed to this story.