Mudslides and Debris Flows Force Los Angeles Residents to Flee Homes
Heavy rains in Southern California triggered mudslides and debris flows in Los Angeles overnight, authorities said, forcing some residents out of their homes.
The National Weather Service warned early Monday that an “extremely dangerous situation” is unfolding in the Hollywood Hills area and around the Santa Monica Mountains amid the storm. “Life threatening landslides and additional flash flooding expected overnight tonight,” the forecasters wrote on X, advising locals to avoid travel.
Two homes in Studio City sustained “significant damage” in a debris flow at around 11:25 p.m. Sunday, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Firefighters helped 16 residents and their pets evacuate from all of the nine houses on Lockridge Road “in case further soil instability causes another flow nearby,” the department said.
Fryman Canyon area mudslide: 16 people displaced out of the 9 homes … Lockridge Road hit the hardest… crews fanning out across area to assess damage, other potential danger… video clip shows a refrigerator in the road @kcalnews pic.twitter.com/xJgUvM6cpt
— Tom (T.J.) Wait (@CBSLATom) February 5, 2024
The two houses hit by the flow were knocked off their foundations, according to KCAL-TV, and a gas line was sheared causing a leak. A witness told the station that a refrigerator was washed out into the street. No one was hurt in the incident, firefighters said, but all of the residents on the road are now displaced.
Later, a separate debris flow was reported around eight miles northwest in Tarzana early Monday. Three homes were impacted, the LAFD said, but only one had residents home at the time. “Both residents were evacuated,” the department said in an update, adding that no injuries occurred.
Fire crews had earlier been sent to rescue motorists nearby whose vehicles had become “disabled in 2-3 feet of water.” They too made it out unharmed as firefighters praised the stranded occupants for staying in their vehicles and not risking “going out into the deep water with unpredictable terrain and currents below the surface.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in eight southern counties in the state on Sunday afternoon. The NWS said Southern California remained at risk of flash flooding on Monday, while portions of the Los Angeles Basin will face showers and thunderstorms producing “very heavy rainfall,” in turn exacerbating the risk of floods and mudslides.
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