Skies Are Clearing, but Cleanup Will Last Weeks in Southland

Southern California’s nearly weeklong siege of torrential rains finally came to an end Wednesday, leaving scores of roads blocked by mudslides and washouts, dozens of homes uninhabitable and a massive cleanup job that could last for weeks.

Traffic on more than 100 roads in Los Angeles County was blocked or interrupted by the storms, and public works officials said highway damage was so widespread that some roads might not reopen until summer or even fall.

The Los Angeles City Council transferred $500,000 from its reserve fund to provide loans and grants for residents displaced by damage, or the threat of it, to their homes.

Parting showers raised the rainfall total for the season in downtown Los Angeles to 33.87 inches Wednesday, making it the third-wettest season on record and the rainiest in 115 years.

Typically, almost 5 inches of rain falls on the city between now and June 30, when the season ends. That means there’s a better than even chance that by the time this season is over, it will be the wettest ever recorded, surpassing the 38.18 inches in 1883-84. Just three years ago, the 2001-02 season was the driest on record, with only 4.42 inches.

Despite at least five storm-related deaths and damage that could top $100 million, the rain did some good, too. Southern California’s storage reservoirs and underground aquifers are once again full, meaning there will be less reliance on water from distant sources such as the Colorado Basin, which is still in the throes of a long-term drought.

In addition, the storms added heavily to the Sierra snowpack, which provides much of the water for the city of Los Angeles. The storms have reduced the demand for water -- including for landscaping and washing cars -- in the city by 25%, according to the Department of Water and Power.

Dry weather is expected for the rest of this week, but the National Weather Service said there was a chance of light rain Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The county and city departments of public works and the California Department of Transportation face a monumental task of cleaning up the mess created by the storms. The price tag for repairing roads has climbed to an estimated $37.6 million for the county alone.

Major routes that remained blocked Wednesday included Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, Topanga Canyon Boulevard near Fernwood, Malibu Canyon Road above Malibu, Angeles Crest Highway above La Canada Flintridge, state Highway 39 above Azusa, Bouquet Canyon Road above Saugus and Sierra Highway between Palmdale and Santa Clarita.

The storm damage included bridge failures, flooding, pavement breakup, rock slides, failed retaining walls and erosion.

On Malibu Canyon Road, firefighters used hoses to try to clear a tall pile of fallen rocks, taking time out to pull out a horse that got stuck chest-deep in mud nearby. The hoses weren’t powerful enough to wash away the slide, and officials said they would try explosives today.

Ken Pellman, a county Public Works official, said the pile had to be moved before the road could reopen.

“We don’t want to reopen it and have boulders tumbling down eventually,” he said.

The blocked roads in and around Malibu hurt business for local merchants.

“About three-quarters of our crew can’t come to work,” said John Cosentino, 43, whose family runs three floral shops and a nursery in the town. Business, he said, was cut by about half.

Although some of the county roads could reopen in days, many are expected to remain closed for weeks and even months.

At the extreme are routes such as San Francisquito Canyon Road, a popular link between Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley.

“That’s the big one for us,” Pellman said. “It’s looking like we won’t have it repaired until October. We need to build a new bridge. The creek just washed away entire portions of the road.”

The flatlands of the eastern Antelope Valley were hard hit as runoff from the mountains spread across the desert floor, said True Pawluk, a spokeswoman for the county.

“It looked like a flood plain out there,” she said.

A mudslide wiped out 1,000 feet of the old Mt. Wilson toll road above Altadena. The dirt road in the Angeles National Forest is used primarily as a fire access route.

Although many of the affected roads are rarely traveled, some, like PCH, Sierra Highway and San Francisquito Canyon Road, are arteries.

“These aren’t just roads on a grid, where you can say, ‘Well, 2nd Street is closed, so I’ll take 1st Street,’ ” Pellman said. “To lose these roads can mean long detours.”

Other major routes that remain closed by slides, washouts or bridge failures include parts of Mulholland Drive and a stretch of Stadium Way in the Echo Park area.

City officials said more than 2,000 potholes had been repaired since Friday, with hundreds more to go. Storm run-off was suspected of causing about 2,600 DWP customers in the Westlake District to lose power Wednesday night. At about 10 p.m., water apparently seeped into an underground vault, causing an electrical cable to automatically shut off as a safety precaution. The area affected is bordered by 1st Street, Westmoreland Avenue, Berendo Street and 6th Street.

Sporadic showers late Tuesday and early Wednesday also unleashed mudslides in hillside communities.

Sixteen homes have been red-tagged in Glassell Park, raising the total marked unfit for habitation in the city of Los Angeles to at least 43.

Seventy homes in the city have received yellow tags, indicating that access is allowed only during daytime hours.

The Glassell Park houses were along Mimosa Drive, Division Street and Ackerman Drive, where slides occurred during the heavy rains of 1977-78.

Gary Mayeda helped his parents load possessions from their red-tagged house on Division into his car.

“This is my childhood home,” he said, staring anxiously at the yellow police tape stretched across the structure. “I grew up here.”

Among those who visited the site Wednesday were Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and one of his opponents in the upcoming mayoral election, Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa.

“No one has ever seen this amount of rain in this amount of time,” the mayor said. “The ground has not had time to recover.”

In Pasadena, six houses were red-tagged in the San Rafael area.

In Orange County, three homes have been destroyed by slides and 13 more were threatened.

At 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, the backyard of a home on McKnight Drive in Laguna Beach moved about 10 feet away from the house. No one was injured.

Homes in Mission Viejo were sliding up to three inches per day as a 67-foot-tall bluff edged toward seven houses.

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Times staff writers Jessica Garrison, Lisa Richardson, Lance Pugmire and Mai Tran contributed to this report.