Flood Causes a Rude Awakening

That wasn’t the sound and the scent of percolating coffee that Bridget Nassour awakened to Friday morning at her Hollywood Hills home.

It was 1,500 gallons of raw sewage burbling up from her living room floor and from a downstairs powder room.

“Mom, water is coming out of the bathroom,” cried her 8-year-old son, Alexander.

“OK, I’ll be down in a minute,” Nassour replied.

“No, I mean it’s really gushing!” screamed the youngster.

Nassour, 35, found herself up to her ankles in brown water when she raced down the stairs of her home, which was being flooded because of a clogged 8-inch city sewer pipe beneath Tahoe Drive.

Her husband, Joe, 42, was in Dallas on a business trip. So Nassour phoned her mother for advice. She recommended calling the Fire Department.

“Ma’am, turn off the water,” counseled the fire dispatcher.

“It’s not clear water,” Nassour frantically explained.

Sewage was cascading out the front door and through a kitchen doggy door when firefighters arrived shortly after 7:30 a.m. On a hillside behind the house, they found Alexander and his 4-year-old sister, Kelly, huddled together.

Inside, Nassour was trying to dam the flow with blankets and bedsheets. Firefighters urged her to head for the hills too.

After summoning city sanitation workers to unplug the sewer line, firefighters erected emergency berms to keep the sewage from flowing into Lake Hollywood. The reservoir is about 100 yards down the hill from the Nassours’ house.

The flooding was halted after two hours. City workers spent much of the day removing sewage from the house--and then hauling off reeking carpeting, furniture and toys.

Sanitation officials apologized for the mess.

“We’ll take care of any expenses that were the city’s responsibility,” said David Mays, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works.