UCLA flood: Roughly 900 cars marooned in underground garage

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on Wednesday doubled the estimated amount of water lost in a massive main break that flooded UCLA to 20 million gallons.

The pipeline, which ruptured on Sunset Boulevard shortly before 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, sent a cascade of water onto the UCLA campus for about four hours, inundating parking garages, sports facilities and campus buildings, including the Pauley Pavilion, where university officials said a recently installed wood floor will have to be completely replaced.

Meanwhile, the estimated number of vehicles marooned in flooded underground parking garages increased to roughly 900, and officials warned that crews may not be able to start towing them out until Friday.

Previous estimates had placed the number of vehicles closer to 700, though officials said not all the trapped vehicles were damaged.

About half the vehicles probably were submerged at some point and suffered major damage, they added. Some of the cars, however, may be dry and fine, and just happened to be parked in an upper level that was declared off-limits during the water main break.

UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said all UCLA students, faculty, staff and any visitors who could be reached were urged to self-report online if their autos remained in parking structures 4 and 7. The number of those reports rose from about 730 early Wednesday morning to about 900 later in the afternoon, said Hampton, whose own 2013 Honda Civic is among those on a lower level and presumed to be badly damaged.

Complicating efforts to drain the garages was all the gasoline and other pollutants from the submerged vehicles now mixing into the water, officials said. Crews are testing the water to make sure that the liquid stew is not reaching any levels of becoming explosive or flammable. They were also monitoring the levels of pollution in the water before it enters the sewer system.

“They sometimes have to slow it down,” UCLA spokeswoman Carol Stogsdill said of the pumping, noting that the two garages now smell of gasoline.

“At this rate, based on the amount of water we removed so far, we think that by the end of the day Friday we’ll probably have the water completely out of the garages and be able to start moving some of these vehicles out of there,” he said.

Chancellor Gene Block said he was thankful no one was injured by the flooding, but acknowledged “there’s a lot of damage.”

“This is an enormous flood,” he said, “and I think we’ve made fantastic progress.”

He estimated the costs would be in the millions.

“These are big buildings,” he said.

The damage was also creating big problems for the campus community.

“I think about students that have final exams, not only do they have their cars here, but their notebooks in there, their lab books, their computers,” Block told The Times. “For a lot of our students, it’s very stressful.”

And for staff members who commute long distances, finding alternate transportation will be a challenge, he added.