Threat of Slides Rises as Storms Approach

Three powerful Pacific storms were bearing down on Los Angeles late Friday, bringing the likelihood of more drenching rain--and the threat of more mudslides, flooding and punishing surf--to already sodden Southern California.

The first storm, following what meteorologists called a “classic El Nino scenario,” was expected to slam into the Southland about noon today as efforts continued to shore up a rain-soaked San Fernando Valley hillside that collapsed before dawn Friday, tearing away a garage and forcing the evacuation of five homes.

Meteorologist Kevin Stenson said the first storm is expected to dump 1 to 4 inches of wind-driven rain on the Los Angeles Basin today and Sunday, with most of it falling in a two- to three-hour period as the main storm front passes through the Southland early this afternoon.

“It looks quite rough,” the meteorologist said.

Scattered showers and possible thundershowers are expected to continue through Sunday, and after a short break Monday, a second storm is due to invade Southern California on Monday night or early Tuesday.

“The second one is heading right for L.A., and it looks just as intense as the first one,” said Stenson, an employee of WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “There should be another break on Wednesday and early Thursday, but by Thursday night, here comes the third one. Right now, the third one looks like the strongest of the three.”

Local officials were bracing for an onslaught.

“We’re getting our swift-water rescue teams activated--probably all 11 of them--with helicopters, divers and all their equipment,” said Inspector Henry Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. “We’ve got bulldozers at Zuma, building up the [sand] berms to help protect oceanfront homes.”

Donna Guyovich, a spokeswoman for the county’s Department of Public Works, said flood-control personnel were making sure that debris basins and storm channels are clear and ready to handle the expected runoff.

“Reservoirs are being lowered to provide extra capacity,” she said. “Road crews are being stationed below brush fire burn zones and other areas threatened by mudslides.”

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Friday’s mudslide in West Hills occurred about 2:30 a.m., when a collapsing hillside ripped a 200-foot-long, 30-foot-deep gash under the house of Lou and Reata Vaughn, leaving their bedroom dangling over a chasm.

City building officials said that if the home had not undergone a seismic retrofitting after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, it would have tumbled into a muddy ravine.

In the damp of Friday morning, as they and their pajama-clad neighbors stood in the middle of the street marveling at the wreckage, the Vaughns could only be grateful for the quake they had once cursed.

“If I had my wits about me,” said Lou Vaughn, 66, “I’d be crying.”

The West Hills mudslide prompted the evacuation of the Vaughns’ and four other homes and threatened several other residences farther down the hill.

Because of the hazard, city officials took the unusual step of temporarily shoring up the privately owned hillside. Plans called for draping the affected area with plastic sheeting, draining away as much of the water as possible and driving in pilings to stabilize the ground.

With more rains expected, officials urged residents to make sure that water is draining properly from their property. The officials recommended clearing roof gutters and drains and, when necessary, draping bare slopes with tarpaulins.

“The hillsides are moving,” warned David Keim, the city’s principal building inspector. “The mud wants to slide like on a ski slope.”

The West Hills landslide was typical of the problems that can occur in the Los Angeles area, geologists said.

Many homes are built on slopes underlain by siltstone bedrock. After a hard rain, water begins saturating the soil above the siltstone. When the water reaches the siltstone--a process that usually takes several days--the bedrock begins to soften. The combination of heavy, water-soaked soil and crumbling bedrock creates conditions susceptible to landslides.

Bill Savage, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Landslide Project, said geologists call such slides “big slow movers.”

“Southern California is the eye of the storm for landslides,” Savage said. “The big slow movers do a whole lot of damage, and they can last a long time.”

Friday’s early morning slide woke neighbors with a loud crash. Floyd and Minnie Rodrigues said they heard a sound like thunder and saw that their digital clock had gone dark.

Minnie Rodrigues, 73, ran down the stairs and noticed that the steppingstones that had once crossed her lawn were now headed down a newly created slope of mud. Then she looked up.

“My God,” she thought to herself. “The garage isn’t there.”

About 12 feet down and 20 feet away, the garage--with a car still parked inside--was wedged against the back of a neighbor’s home.

Another elderly couple, Virgil and Rita Palub, were trapped inside their home on Malden Street when a wall of earth slammed into their back yard. The weight of the soil twisted the frame of their house and jammed the doors shut. Firefighters had to hack through the door to rescue the couple.

“We thought this house was going to be the last one we would ever be in,” Rita Palub said. “I don’t think we’ll build again.”

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Those who do rebuild may have to bear the financial burden without assistance from their insurance companies, since most homeowner policies do not cover mudslides.

Richard Magdaleno’s home on Shoup Avenue was virtually unscathed by the mudslide, but his backyard is buried under a mound of wet earth, twisted fences and uprooted trees. He estimated that it would cost him about $50,000 to clear the debris and restore city-mandated grading.

In the gated community of Bel-Air Crest Estates atop the Santa Monica Mountains, three workers suffered minor injuries Friday morning when the rain-soaked wooden frame of a wall they were raising into place fell on them.

Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey said the wall was being built in the 11700 block of Wetherby Lane. He said the workers underestimated the weight of the wood, which had been drenched by recent rains.

The three were examined at the UCLA Medical Center after complaining of sore necks and backs.

Building inspectors declared an unoccupied home in Los Feliz unsafe after neighbors noticed that recent rains had eroded the foundation beneath the house on Surry Street.

For those who like to compare this winter with the legendarily destructive El Nino winter of 1982-83, the region has already had more rain by the same date. The season’s total at the Los Angeles Civic Center as of Feb. 13 in 1983 was 13.54 inches of rain; this year’s total was 14.54 inches.

Meteorologists aren’t saying the same thing will happen this year, but in 1983, the most violent and destructive storms came in March.

Stenson said the first storm in the current series--it’s the same one that dropped a lot of snow on Nagano earlier in the week--is following a familiar El Nino pattern.

He said that as it tracked across the Pacific, the tail of the cold, northern Pacific weather system swung far enough south to sweep up some extra moisture from a flare-up of thunderstorm activity south of Hawaii.

This moisture, meteorologists

said, is adding to the rainfall from the storm.

The second storm--centered south of the Aleutian Islands late Friday--is following the same El Nino pattern as the first, Stenson said. The third, which was centered just east of Japan on Friday night, could follow suit, meteorologists said.

“But that third one may be the last in the series,” Stenson said. “That may be it for a while.”

Times staff writers David Colker and Solomon Moore in the San Fernando Valley and correspondent Sue McAllister on the Westside contributed to this story.

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Protecting Your Property From the Rain

People in flood-prone neighborhoods are urged to use sandbags to redirect rain and debris away from their home.

But sandbagging takes planning and effort.

Where To Get Sand

All county Fire Department stations are providing sand some city street maintenance yards. All county fire department stations are providing sand, and it may also be obtained from garden supply stores and some city fire stations and street maintenance yards. If sand isn’t readily available, bags can be filled with dirt or fine gravel.

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PLACING THE BAGS TO PROTECT A BUILDING

Layers: Bags should be placed in layers against the building.

Protecting doors: to protect doors, place plastic sheet against door before stacking sandbags.

Other ways to protect your home:

Clear rain gutters of debris

Board up windows and doors to keep out debris.

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Filling and Stacking the Bags

The most efficient way of filling and stacking sandbags, which are made of either burlap or polypropylene:

Fill halfway: Overfilling makes the bags heavy and difficult to manage.

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Placement: Place with the folded top of the bag in the upstream or uphill direction to prevent bags from opening when water runs by them.

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Stacking: Layered tightly, with layers staggered. Rows should be no more than three layers, unless they’re supported by a building or placed in a pyramid.

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Open a trash bag and use as a protective layer under the sandbags, if the sandbags are not prone to sliding.

Sources: Los Angeles city and county fire departments. Los Angeles County Public Works; Researched by JULIE SHEER and STEPHANIE STASSEL / Los Angeles Times

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All in a Row

The first of three powerful Pacific storms was expected to hit the West Coast today, drenching the Southland with up to four inches of wind-driven rain through Sunday. A second storm of equal intensity is expected on Tuesday. A third, potentially the strongest of all, could hit by Thursday night.

Today-- Drenching rain from this weather system could cause more mudslides, plus flooding and high surf.

Thursday night-- Third, perhaps most powerful, storm looms.

Tuesday-- Another storm headed toward California is expected to intensify as it draws moisture from humid air off Hawaii.

Sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / WeatherData Inc.

* STORM TRACK

A look at where the next storms are positioned. A21