For days the raging San Gabriel River has cut off ground access to the permanent residents of Follows Camp tucked into a canyon in rugged Angeles National Forest about 30 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
''We're completely separated from the rest of the world,'' said Lt. Tim Dowling of the Follows Camp Volunteer Fire Department.
Worse, they had spotty radio and telephone contact because the batteries of the solar-powered cellular tower nearby ran down. It wasn't until Wednesday when the skies cleared and a Los Angeles County sheriff's search and rescue team was able to fly in to assess the situation.
The team flew out a cardiac patient needing special medication and a 10-year-old boy who had been visiting friends, said Sgt. Larry Wineinger of the San Dimas sheriff's station. He was reunited with his worried family.
The Sheriff's Department obtained donated food and supplies and returned Thursday afternoon, said Brenda Hunemiller, a disaster management coordinator for the area.
Meanwhile, residents of the camp were cleaning up from flooding that damaged many cabins and washed out half of the community's fire equipment, including a fire engine that fell into the river Monday, Dowling said.
There was also concern that soil left loose by last year's Williams Fire could slide down into the camp.
During two days of nonstop rain, the river's water level rose 22 feet above normal, but it has slowly subsided, Dowling said.
''It's been tense around here,'' he said. ''We're running out of food, so when we get our food shipped in it should keep the edge off things.''
''We also have a huge sanitation problem because our garbage is piling up but there's no way to get it out of here,'' he said.
Dowling said he and many residents are drawn to the community by its rustic beauty.
The area was originally populated as a gold-mining site in 1862. Follows Camp was founded three decades later by Ralph Follows, an Englishman who moved to San Gabriel Canyon in hope of finding a cure for his tuberculosis.
About 200 people rents cabins from the campsite owned by current owners Patricia Jones and her two sons.
''It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth,'' Dowling said. ''I've got bears in the backyard and raccoons that are my friends. We have good people here and we get together to play guitars and sing our songs.''
''Now it looks like a martian landscape,'' he said. ''It feels like an end of an era to some degree because it's going to be tough to rebuild.''
To the east, the storm also sent mud and boulders coursing down the San Bernardino Mountains and blocking the only roads to Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear and other resort towns. The California Highway Patrol was escorting residents down the mountain for two hours each in the early morning and evening.
At the Lake Arrowhead Resort, several dozen people have been unable to leave and a few residents from the community have checked in because their homes are flooded, said Desiraye Shaker, a desk clerk. But the road closures have hurt the tourist-dependent region, she said.
''Everyone is very inconvenienced right now, but there's not a lot we can do about it,'' Shaker said.
