HOLLYWOOD : Hospital Delays Surgeries After Water Main Breaks

Surgeries were postponed for an hour Wednesday at Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, and the hospital was without hot water for more than four hours because of a break in a water main that supplies its boilers, hospital officials said.

“The computer systems and (emergency) generator were not affected, and there were no evacuations,” said hospital spokesman Bob Steward. About 5,000 gallons of water flooded the basement to a depth of about 1 1/2 feet, city fire officials said.

Some emergency patients were diverted to other hospitals for about an hour. A hospital official speculated that recent earthquakes may have caused a shifting of earth that eventually resulted in the water main rupture.