Taking advantage of the dry and sunny weekend, crews with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works have begun to assess damage caused by a series of pounding storms and are out clearing roadways, underground storm drains and debris catch basins near the recently burned areas, officials said.
"When the sun comes out, we start work again," department spokesman Bob Spencer said. "We have a lot of road crews clearing out the roads of mud and debris. Flood control people will be in the basins."
Crews are inspecting 1,000 miles of underground storm drains and 500 miles of flood control channels. But priority cleanup efforts are targeted at the 155 basins, many which have reached capacity levels. Road crews will also begin to clear out many of the canyon roadways affected by mud and debris.
"We’re going to be busy like this through the winter season," Spencer said.
In addition, Spencer said 75,000 acre-feet of water has been collected in reservoirs, the equivalent of serving about 150,000 families for the year.
— Ruben Vives