A surprisingly fierce rainstorm has prompted evacuations in parts of the La Cañada Flintridge burn area at the top of Ocean View Boulevard, where several homes in the neighborhood have been severely damaged by mudslides, cars have been swept down the boulevard and a torrent of debris and mud has rushed nearly a mile to Foothill Boulevard.
No injuries have been reported. The force of the mudflow has inundated several homes, pushing furniture into yards, collapsing garage doors and blanketing yards with several feet of mud. A flash-flood warning is in effect Saturday morning for the Station Fire area, extending into Sierra Madre and east to Glendora. More heavy rain is expected later today.
"It looked like the Niagara Falls was coming down the street," said Amanda Manukian, whose home along the 5400 block of Ocean View Boulevard was strewn with mud and remnants of sandbags. "This hill right here, half of it came down," she said, pointing to a hill about a quarter-mile above her home.
At Ocean View Boulevard and Manistee Drive a resident described how in the predawn hours she and her family held on to whatever they could in their home to prevent themselves from being washed away. When they awoke, the water inside their one-story house was already waist deep, said the woman, who did not give her name. After about 20 minutes she, her husband and their 20-year-old son managed to scramble out the back door.
Across the street on Manistee Drive, neighbor Jeff Schroeder’s front door and garage were jammed shut by a wall of mud. One of his cars washed away, another was stuck in the garage and debris had clogged the engine of a third. "I don’t know what choice I got," he said.
Ocean View area resident Henrik Hairapetiani said he helped rescue his 90-year-old neighbor, whom he found floating on her bed. Her home had been flooded with up to four feet of water.
Above La Cañada Flintridge, trees were flung inside one home on the 5600 block of Ocean View Boulevard, making it uninhabitable, and the garage door was crumpled like a piece of paper. Torrents of water pushed around cars that were once parked in driveway, cramming them against the side of homes. A truck was wedged in between a home and a tree, while the bumpers of a Nissan Altima and Toyota Prius were shorn off, their tires wedged in a foot of sticky mud.
Fire officials were going door-to-door Saturday morning, warning La Cañada Flintridge residents of mandatory evacuations. Authorities were placing yellow police tape to mark homes already evacuated. Some residents were refusing to leave. Officials said they will escort others down mud-slicked roads.
The evacuations follow several frenzied hours this morning in which work crews bulldozed muddied roads, clearing the way for safe evacuations. Fire officials said they are focusing on areas evacuated during last month’s rainstorms.
The rain was so intense at times early this morning that residents reported hearing thunderous sounds, not knowing whether it was real thunder of the roar of mudslides.
Although an early band of heavy rain, which dumped about 2 1/2 inches in La Cañada Flintridge, is moving out of the Los Angeles area, another wallop is on the way, according to the National Weather Service. The next band of moderate to heavy rain is expected to arrive in Los Angeles County by noon and there is an increased threat of thunderstorms. Three-quarters to 1 1/4 inches of rain are expected to fall in the Station Fire burn area through this evening, with peak rainfall expected between noon and 4 p.m.
Jamie Meier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the intensity of the overnight storm was a surprisingly stronger than expected.
"We expected the storm to move a little bit quicker, and in this case the storm set up and did not go anywhere," she said. "That’s why we had so much rain."
One rain gauge north of Eaton Canyon registered 3 1/2 inches of rain. Nearly 2 inches of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles overnight. "And there is still a lot on the way," Meier said.
Elsewhere, in Long Beach, the California Highway Patrol closed the 710 Freeway at Willow Street because of flooding. This is the same stretch of the 710 that was flooded during storms last month.
Hydroplaning is being blamed in part for three fatalities in two separate crashes overnight.
In Santa Clarita, a hydroplaning vehicle on the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) stuck another vehicle south of Calgrove Boulevard and sent it off an overpass, plunging 80 to 100 feet to the Old Road below. In the City of Industry, two people were killed in a hydroplaning pickup truck on the westbound Pomona Freeway (California 60) near the Crossroads Parkway exit.
In the Sunland area, a Los Angeles fire engine had reportedly become stuck in mud near Oro Vista Avenue and Big Tujunga Canyon Road. And a flow of mud across Blanchard Canyon Road in the Tujunga area reportedly has made it impassable earlier in the morning.
In San Pedro a hillside collapsed, sending a plume of mud onto West 25th Street. Elsewhere, downed trees caused problems on Sunset Boulevard in Westwood and in La Puente.
Officials were focusing their attention in neighborhoods surrounding Ocean View Boulevard, where a sheriff’s deputy was turning away the curious from walking up to the top of the mountain to see the mudflows.
"There’s a giant hill up there. It’s soaked and it’s loose," said Kevin Gavaghan, a sheriff’s deputy, manning a roadblock on the 5400 block of Ocean View Boulevard. He had to turn away three nearby residents headed uphill with video cameras wanting to see what was going on. "If you’re in a high home and you don’t need to get anywhere, you’re fine."
He said there are utility crews standing nearby in case any electrical or gas lines break because of flooding or mudslides. Crews were also cutting down trees and clearing off the roadway.
He warned that anything on the street could be washed down if it starts raining again.
— Victoria Kim and Ruben Vives, reporting from La Cañada Flintridge, and Rong-Gong Lin II, reporting from Los Angeles
FULL COVERAGE OF THE MUDSLIDES
–Times photo gallery from the scene
–Interactive map of evacuations by The Times” Rong-Gong Lin II