Nine Homes Red-Tagged After Slides
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A debris flow damages a home after heavy rains caused mudslides in La Canada Flintridge, California. Large wildfires in 2008 and 2009 stripped the hills and mountains of vegetation, resulting in mud and debris flow danger as winter rains pass over foothill communities where thousands of people have been evacuated at times in recent weeks. The threat is particularly high near the San Gabriel Mountains above La Canada-Flintridge area which were denuded of natural flood-controlling vegetation by the 250-plus square mile Station. At least 40 homes have been severely damaged and 500 remain evacuated.
The federal government should pay for mud removal because of the way the U.S. Forest Service handled the Station Fire in August, according to La Canada Flintridge Mayor Laura Olhasso.
Olhasso's comments came after a severe mudslide damaged and destroyed homes in her community during the weekend.
"I call on the federal government to take the responsibility to help our residents pay for cleaning up the mud," Olhasso said at a news conferencey. "The federal government must take responsibility for their mud that is coming out of their hills."
Olhasso and Supervisor Mike Antonovich blamed the Forest Service for mismanagement during the 250-acre wildfire that led to the current situation. The blaze left hillsides above the area barren.
Most foothill residents were allowed back in their homes Sunday, but more than 40 houses in La Canada Flintridge were mired in mud and at least nine were uninhabitable -- perhaps permanently.
The boulder-clogged Mullally catch basin at the top of Ocean View Drive sent a river of mud and wildfire debris down the road, as well as the cul-de-sacs that branch off of it, about 3:30 a.m. Saturday, and some residents of the area known as Paradise Valley barely got out their homes with their lives.
Henrik Hairapetian and a neighbor rescued 86-year-old Ann Rouman from her slurry-filled home. When Hairapetian reached the woman, who uses oxygen to help her breathe, her hospital bed was floating in waist-high water.
Paramedics were unable to drive up the road, which was turned in a debris-filled torrent, and Hairapetian, who customizes 4-wheel-drive vehicles for the movie industry, drove the woman to a hospital in his Hummer.
On Manistee Drive, just off Ocean View Boulevard, a 20-year-old man was awakened by mud and debris hitting the side of his home about 5 a.m. He made a narrow escape as his window broke and the room started filling with muck.
"It was about 5 a.m. and it was really loud, so I decided to get up," said Jennifer Dickens, who lives across the street. "I saw this wave coming. It was like a waterfall hitting the house."
Cars, 2-ton concrete K-rails, logs and boulders were thrown around like toys, and at least nine homes had mud throughout them. About a dozen others sustained significant structural damage, including partial collapses.
About 25 cars were wrecked, and dozens of swimming pools were filled with mud.
County fire Inspector Matt Levesque said the high-water mark on one home was about eight feet.
Amazingly, no injuries were reported.
Damage to the homes alone is expected to run into the tens of millions of dollars, but public officials have yet to estimate damages or the price of cleanup operations.
Forecasters predicted the rainfall to come in two major waves. But the mostly steady rain that started late Thursday night continued until sunrise Saturday almost unabated, and residents and public safety agencies were caught off guard.
The rain was falling at a rate of about an inch an hour between 6:45 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., according to the National Weather Service.
Most foothill areas got a total of more than 3 inches of rain. Though more rain fell during last month's weeklong storm, the clogged catch basin and the cumulative effect of the rain apparently contributed to the mudflows.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, speaking at an afternoon news conference, blamed the U.S. Forest Service for failing to commit more resources to the Station Fire in its infancy. The August-September wildfire, which scorched about 250 square miles of forest land, ranks as the biggest on record.
Other slide-prone areas fared better. Mud coated Blanchard Canyon Road in Tujunga but did not invade any homes.
Los Angeles Fire Department Engine 24 got stuck in mud near Big Tujunga Canyon Road and Oro Vista Avenue just before 6 a.m. and needed to be winched out.
Mud piled up about 5 feet high in places along Skyland Drive in Sierra Madre, where about 300 homes were evacuated, but mud-diversion barriers keep flows out of homes.
Though La Canada Flintridge was the hardest hit area, there were pockets of storm-related trouble in almost every corner of the county.
Of the nearly 9,000 Department of Water and Power customers who lost their electricity as a result of storm-related outages, 800 in the West Los Angeles area were still without power today, a DWP spokesperson said. That was about 800 less than Saturday, when about 1,600 customers were without electricity, said DWP spokesperson Maryanne Pierson.
"Everyone affected at the peak of the storm has been restored except for about 800 in the West Los Angeles area," Pierson said.
