3 Injured in Crash Near Famous Hollywood and Highland
LOS ANGELES -- At least 43 homes were damaged and 540 were evacuated as rainy weather sent hillsides sliding in foothill burn areas.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich confirmed the numbers of homes under mandatory evacuation in a multi-agency news conference, where he also announced 12 of the damaged homes had major damage or had been deemed completely uninhabitable.
Antonovich said he went through the storm-ravaged areas Saturday morning. "It was as if you were at Universal Studios on the studio tour seeing a devastated war zone area," he said.
Some of the worst damage occurred in La Canada Flintridge, in the foothills near the burn area of last summer's massive Station wildfire, where a hillside gave way above Manistee Drive, a cul-de-sac off Ocean View Boulevard, about 5 a.m. Mud cascaded into homes, piling up 5 feet high in some places.
Many homes were filled with mud, water, and debris, as swept-away cars and home furniture was seen littering the streets as intense rain poured in the land that had been stripped bare by last summer's devastating Station fire.
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Mandatory evacuation orders have been canceled for all of Sierra Madre, La Crescenta, and Acton, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
Mandatory evacuation orders have also been lifted for most o La Canada Flintridge with the exception of Paradise Valley.
Some areas remain on evacuation orders, including Ocean View Boulevard from 5524 north; Earnslow Drive; Bristow Drive; Derwood Drive; Manistee Drive; and Highrim Road.
Steady rain overnight is being blamed for multiple mudslides in La Canada Flintridge and La Crescenta, including a huge flow caused when a debris basin overflowed near Ocean View Boulevard.
The neighborhoods most affected were in the vicinity of Mastinee Drive, Derwood Drive and Bristow Drive.
30 of the most severely damaged homes are alone on Ocean View Boulevard in Pickens Canyon.
Five homes in Pickens Canyon were tagged with a red notice warning they were unsafe to enter. At one house, mud was piled up to the handle on the front door and the yard was completely washed away. Two white Toyotas were smashed up against front of house.
At another nearby red-tagged home, crews dug by hand through at least 4 feet of mud to try and find the source of a natural gas leak.
Some houses in the upper reaches of Pickens Canyon had their garage doors buckled outwards toward the street because water and mud had flowed through the structures. Other homes had completely collapsed, apparently into new water chasms carved into their yards.
Mud carried away cement K-rail barricades on Ocean View Boulevard and pushed cars into storm drains.
No fatalities or injuries have been reported.
"We've got crews going door to door to tell residents to get out," said Los Angeles County Fire Insp. Frederick Stowers. "Some of the roads up there are a complete mess."
An evacuation center has been set up at the Sierra Madre Community Recreation Center, 611 E. Sierra Madre Blvd.
