Sun Valley at Risk in the Rain

Sun Valley’s predicament is on deadly display this week.

The foothill community on the eastern edge of the San Fernando Valley is always doubly pounded by big storms -- first from rainfall and then by rivers of runoff hurtling down the Verdugo Mountains inundating the city streets.

That confluence of geography and meteorology opened up a massive sinkhole that on Sunday claimed the life of a city engineer and threatens to continue growing.

The crater is now a yawning 200-foot-long rectangle stretching along the 8400 block of Tujunga Avenue, itself once a riverbed.

The chasm first showed itself Saturday, as water undermined the asphalt roadway, poured into the underlying sand and created an underground river of rock and gravel.

As the rain continued and the underground flow increased, the relatively thin rind of earth and road collapsed.

By Monday night the sinkhole had engulfed the two-lane road and advanced on the parking lot of an adjacent business. It was there, officials say, that the river of rock was headed. Engineers said the rock flow was plowing its way into the business’ gravel pit, where it was flowing freely.

Flooding has long been a problem in Sun Valley, a working-class, predominately Latino community dotted with modest homes as well as trash dumps, auto dismantlers and recycling centers.

The district of 46,000 residents began as an industrial zone that included sand and gravel pits, with residences later built around it.

Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents the area, said Sun Valley has inadequate storm drainage but that a lack of funding has stalled efforts to improve the situation.

A panel began addressing the flooding problem in 1998. The Final Sun Valley Watershed Management Plan was completed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works last May and adopted by the county Board of Supervisors in June.

The plan analyzed four alternatives, including building a massive storm drain system connected to the Santa Monica Bay. Another idea was to create a greenbelt system of parks and recreation areas that would serve as collectors for rainwater and open space in drier times.

Ileene Anderson, a resident who worked on the early stages of the plan, said while all sides could not agree on the method to manage the water, everyone knew something had to be done.

“There is simply no infrastructure,” she said. “They rely on the streets to move the water. It always floods.”

On Monday night, Sun Valley residents agreed.

“The flooding gets worse and worse each year,” said Vincente Lopez, adding that already bad traffic becomes impossible during heavy rain. “It’s hard to deal with it.”

Earlier on Monday rescuers recovered the body of Rory Shaw, 47, a civil engineering associate with the city’s Bureau of Engineering.

Shaw had just finished briefing Cardenas and Bureau of Public Works Commissioner Yolanda Fuentes on Sunday night when he returned to work at the sinkhole site.

It remains unclear exactly how Shaw fell into the sinkhole. Fire Department officials say the engineer was standing near the edge when the asphalt gave way and he pitched forward into the hole.

Cardenas said he saw Shaw begin to cross the street in deepening water, and then, “he just disappeared.”

“One second he was there. The next he was gone,” Cardenas said.

“Rory was crossing the street. He was going to unhook a hose. I could see every step. I was yelling, ‘How deep is the water?’ ”

Cardenas said Shaw looked at him and put his hand next to his thigh, to indicate that the water was about 3 feet deep. Then, he said, “We looked back and Rory disappeared.”

Cardenas said workers kept reaching their hands into the sinkhole to try to grab Shaw, but were unable to reach him.

“It was so deep and so dark,” he said.

The city engineer had previously slipped in the fast current and co-workers got him to his feet. Moments later he slipped again.

Within minutes, Cardenas said, rescuers from the Fire Department arrived on the scene, but they were unable to rescue Shaw.

Among the last things Shaw said to him, according to Cardenas: “I’m not going to let this street go.”

According to city engineer Gary Lee Moore, the 13-year veteran was always on the scene of the most difficult problems.

“He was one of the unsung public works heroes,” Moore said. “He was not an 8-to-5 guy, he would work all day and get the call and he would be up all night, but he never complained.”

Part of his duties were responding to emergency sewer repairs, Moore said, but Shaw was always enthusiastic and the first to volunteer for a tough job.

“I remember Rory’s smile and grin,” Moore said. “He would come bouncing into the office and say, ‘Boss we’ve got another one.’ I’d run through the checklist of things to do and he was always a step ahead of me.”

Fire Department helicopters, swift water rescue teams and ground crews were called to the accident site at 10:37 p.m. Sunday.

Using rescue ropes and an extension ladder, firefighters were able to recover Shaw’s body about 2 a.m. Monday. All attempts to stabilize the sinkhole were stopped and Cal/OSHA and city officials were conducting a formal investigation, Moore said.

With the road closed, officials said they were not taking any further action on the sinkhole until the rains stopped.

“We’re letting nature take its course,” Fuentes said.

Times staff writers Julie Cart and Rachana Rathi contributed to this report.