Storm Damage Put at $1.5 Million : Recreation: The largest losses were in the Sepulveda Basin and O’Melveny Park in Granada Hills. The total figure is three times higher than first estimated.

The storm that poured torrents of rain on the Los Angeles area two weeks ago caused $1.5 million in damage to Sepulveda Basin recreation facilities and two other park areas in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles parks officials said Monday.

That was three times as much as was originally estimated.

The officials estimated damage at $750,000 to Sepulveda Basin facilities, $500,000 to O’Melveny Park in Granada Hills, and $300,000 to park sites and trails in Porter Ranch.

Frank Catania, a top budget analyst with the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, warned, however, that the figures are still “very preliminary.”

Jackie Tatum, the parks department’s newly appointed general manager, said Monday in a report prepared for the Board of Recreation and Park Commissioners that her financially strapped agency is losing critical revenue due to the forced closure of its golf courses in the Sepulveda Basin.

Storm waters from the Feb. 10 deluge inundated hundreds of acres of the basin, a floodwater reservoir behind the Sepulveda Dam that is also the site of many recreation facilities--including three 18-hole golf courses--run by the parks department.

The Encino Golf Course remains entirely closed as does a nine-hole section of the city’s Woodley Golf Course, Tatum said. Debris needs to be removed and repairs made at both courses.

“It will probably be another three weeks before Encino is open again,” Tatum predicted. All of the Woodley course is expected to be open by Saturday.

Although no golf greens at the Sepulveda Basin courses need replacing, some of the extensive and costly irrigation systems might have been irreparably damaged, Tatum warned.

Because the city earns about $100,000 a month from each of the three courses, it is especially important that they are returned to full service as soon as possible, Tatum said.

The city will be hit by more losses when Sepulveda Basin concessionaires such as golf cart operators--who pay the city a percentage of their take--report their income, Tatum added.

Catania said the damages at O’Melveny and the Porter Ranch park sites were due to heavy erosion and hillside slippage. He did not give details. O’Melveny is the city’s second largest park, used mostly by walkers, joggers and horseback riders.

Meanwhile, city transportation engineers said they will meet today to discuss how long it will take to reopen Burbank Boulevard, where motorists were rescued from flood-stranded vehicles in one of the most dramatic incidents of the storm.

Mud left by receding floodwaters as the runoff was allowed to flow into the Los Angeles River closed Burbank Boulevard from the San Diego Freeway to Hayvenhurst Avenue. Woodley Avenue from Victory to Burbank boulevards was also closed.

Ray Wellbaum, city transportation engineer, said officials are optimistic that the roadway can be opened next week. Last week, officials believed that it would take at least three weeks to restore the roadway, he said.

The reopening is being delayed to remove dirt from the roadway, and mud and water that has filled street drains and the electrical compartments of the traffic lights at Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue, he said.

“Now it’s a matter of getting the dirt off the road, and I think there are some drains that need to be flushed,” Wellbaum said.

Wellbaum said closure of Burbank Boulevard has forced commuters to crowd onto alternative parallel routes, such as Ventura Boulevard and the Ventura Freeway.

“We are trying to get it open as fast as we can,” he said. “Traffic is not really a nightmare but it sure does help when Burbank is open.”

For Phil November, a Tarzana resident who normally uses Burbank Boulevard to commute to his job in North Hills, the delay is causing some headaches.

“I think this is ridiculous,” he said, adding that he has complained to city officials that the street closures forced him to take alternative routes to work. “It seems as if they have all kinds of other priorities instead of helping the commuters get to where they want to go.”