Los Angles County Mudslides

Here is a look at some of the county’s most damaging mudslides over the last 24 years:

January, 1969: More than 14 inches of rain over 10 days wreak havoc on Southern California, hitting Los Angeles County especially hard: 13 people die in mudslides in Topanga Canyon, Sherman Oaks, Highland Park, Glendale, Brentwood, Thousand Oaks and San Dimas. Los Angeles city and county suffer nearly $35 million in damage. Due to mudslide danger, hundreds of people are evacuated from Mandeville and Big Tujunga canyons, the Linda Vista area west of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and Glendora.

February, 1978: Laurel Canyon, from Mulholland Drive to Hollywood Boulevard, is severely affected when floodwaters loosen earth from Lookout Mountain and tons of mud roll over Laurel Canyon Boulevard. Fifty cars are wrecked and a $150,000 house with three people inside is swept 20 feet down a hill before hitting a tree. The occupants escape injury.

April, 1979: A 116-ton slab of rock from the Malibu cliffs falls onto Pacific Coast Highway south of Big Rock in the Topanga Canyon area, closing it for two days. A subsequent slide causes all four lanes of PCH to be closed for three weeks.

February, 1980: Seven storms move through Southern California in nine days, with Los Angeles County receiving 13 inches of rain. Damage, deaths and injuries due to mudslides include:

The deaths of two women, one buried in mud that smashes her Mandeville Canyon home, the other buried in the mud of a creek bed in the Malibu Canyon area.

Minor injuries to several firefighters, police officers and residents in Monterey Park while fighting mudslides in hillside areas.

Six homes destroyed in Monterey Park and six others heavily damaged, leaving two people injured. Also heavily damaged are four homes in Bradbury, four in Sherman Oaks and two in Altadena.

An abandoned house that slides down a Sherman Oaks hillside, heavily damaging another home and forcing the evacuation of two others. A Laurel Canyon home slides into the middle of Sunset Heights Drive and remains there for three days.

January, 1982: A man is killed by a slide of rock and mud while hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains.

March, 1983: Two slides (one involving an estimated 75,000 tons of mud) close seven miles of Pacific Coast Highway between Topanga Canyon Road and Malibu Canyon Road for three days, damaging several garages, tearing down telephone poles, knocking out power and cable TV lines, and splitting a sewage pipe.

Source: Los Angeles Times files