With the major road in and out of his home closed because of slides, sinkholes or high water, John Eubanks spent Monday mopping sludge and water from the Casitas Springs auction house his family has owned and run for 40 years.

"About half our building is under water," said Eubanks, 60. "We've been working since 8 a.m. It's just seeping out of the ground now; it's just so saturated here."

Eubanks, his wife, Mary, and daughter Leah are like hundreds -- possibly thousands -- across rain-socked Ventura County: stranded in their own homes or unable to leave their somewhat isolated communities because of the storm's onslaught.

Downtown Ojai was busy much of the day Monday, mainly with locals who were unable to go to work. Betty Matson had been planning to go to Ventura for a meeting. Instead, she spent the day driving around looking at the rising creeks and streams and then stopped at Ojai Table of Contents to buy a book.

"Anything to get out of the house, for God's sake," she said. "You get stir crazy."

City officials in Piru say the small enclave at the county's eastern edge essentially was cut off. No one could get in or out Monday morning because of road closures along Highway 126. The roads were filled with water and debris.

Working round-the-clock

Andrea Hernandez said her children worked round-the-clock trying to remove water that had seeped from the back yard into the garage of her 89-year-old mother's home on Main Street.

"There's a lot of water behind the home that's seeping in. It's knee-high," she said. "It's frustrating. We can't do anything because we don't have the proper equipment."

Hernandez, who is on crutches, couldn't leave her own home if she had wanted. Slick mud lined the street outside, Hernandez said, making it impossible to drive.

By 3 p.m., scores of Piru residents were evacuated to Piru Elementary or left town as officials feared flooding of Piru Creek.

Sheriff's Department officials could not say how many more people were stranded in homes around the county. But Highway 150 and Grimes Canyon Road remained closed Monday, sealing off residents in Ojai and Fillmore, respectively, said Eric Nishimoto, Ventura County Sheriff's Department spokesman.

Mike Kerr and his family live in Camp Bartlett, a tiny neighborhood of old vacation cabins built during Prohibition, on Highway 150, a few miles north of Santa Paula and about a mile from Thomas Aquinas College.

"We can't go either direction," he said by telephone. "The highway right outside is covered in about 2 feet of sludge and rock debris."

With no way to work or school, the family spent most of the day outdoors.

"The kids are doing lots of splashing in the puddles," he said.

The Kerrs were prepared with enough food and water, and the electricity to the house wasn't a problem.

"This is the highest water we have ever seen," said Kerr of a swollen Sisar Creek that runs near their home. "Entire trees have gone by, even a metal storm drain that was brought down from upstream and wrapped around a tree. That was Mother Nature's little joke to those who thought they could contain her."

Rancher faces different threats

Tucked in the hills on the outskirts of Moorpark, Carilyn Simmons' ranch, normally a place of quiet seclusion, faced a much different situation.

Her horses went about their usual business, milling through muddied stalls as if unaware of the fast and heavy rain.

Nearby, a more-than-swollen flood channel raged, sending torrents of water through a carefully cut path across her 93-acre ranch. The swift-moving water swallowed a tree and some horse corrals and was approaching a small trailer that normally sat well back from the bank.

"This is just frightening," she said.

Simmons would have to cross about 30 feet of water in order to get to the horses, or escape to her driveway and elsewhere. The long, curving driveway where a line of sandbags sat soggy was the only way she could leave the ranch. She said she wouldn't leave the animals.

"This is worse than the fire," she said, recalling the destruction that swept through the area in October 2003.

David Haynes was stranded early Monday, and he wasn't even home.

Haynes, a newspaper delivery driver for The Star, was headed northbound on Pacific Coast Highway at the Rincon when gusty winds blew his Dodge Durango across the highway and up against the rocks.

Despite calls for help, Haynes was trapped in his car for hours because rescue officials could not reach him. Haynes eventually climbed out of the truck's side window and found shelter with a couple at a nearby mobile home, said Ruth Haynes, his wife, who spoke to him by cell phone.

-- Staff writers Jessica Keating, Jean Ortiz, Charles Levin and County Editor Marty Bonvechio contributed to this report.