Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Water Problems to Keep Magic Mountain Closed for the Weekend

Six Flags Magic Mountain, the Valencia theme park famed for its rides, will be closed this weekend because the Monday earthquake temporarily severed the 260-acre complex’s water supply, a park spokeswoman said Friday.

Although the park’s rides and buildings suffered no major visible damage from the magnitude 6.6 quake, park spokeswoman Bonnie Rabjohn said the complex is literally dry because of damage to the delivery system of its water supplier, the Valencia Water Co.

“It’s obvious you can’t open a theme park without water,” said Rabjohn.

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Officials of the park in the hard-hit Santa Clarita Valley hope to reopen the park by next weekend, she said. But she conceded that it will depend on the restoration of a drinkable water supply.

During the current off-season, the park normally is only open on weekends and holidays. The expected loss of three operating days--Monday’s Martin Luther King holiday and this Saturday and Sunday--will match the longest unscheduled closure in the park’s 23-year history, Rabjohn said.

Magic Mountain’s prior longest unplanned closure was three days, because of heavy rain, in January, 1993. The park was not forced to close during the Los Angeles riots.

For the park to reopen, the complex must have water that visitors may drink, Rabjohn said. Because of earthquake damage, residents with water service were still being warned Friday to boil supplies before drinking.

A related concern is the damage that has forced the closure of the stretch of the Golden State Freeway that serves as the main north-south route to Magic Mountain. Rabjohn said Magic Mountain officials are counting on Caltrans to open a bypass route by next week.

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The most serious freeway damage is south of the park, near the interchange of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways. Caltrans officials have been discussing plans to bypass that section to reopen the Golden State as an artery between the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys.

By Friday, Rabjohn said, park officials had reviewed the structural integrity of almost all of the park’s buildings and nearly 50 rides. Asked if any of the rides required structural repairs, she said, “Not that I’m aware of.”

Although it has been closed, Magic Mountain has hardly been quiet since the earthquake. Its parking lot has been used daily as a landing zone for California Army National Guard helicopters to ferry relief squads of county sheriff’s deputies and firefighters from the Los Angeles area into the Santa Clarita Valley.