Despite being soaked for the last three days, there have been surprisingly few reports of flooding, downed trees, and power outages in the Greater Wilshire area from the powerful Atmospheric River storm that covered the state. Local neighborhood leaders confirmed very few reports from residents, most of which we reported on yesterday.
Larchmont Village resident Sam Uretsky told the Buzz he was surprised and delighted there were no reports of power outages in the neighborhood and that problematic storm drains were draining working. Calls to Cindy Chvatal Keane, Hancock Park HOA President Gary Gilbert, Windsor Square Association board member, and chair of the GWNC Resiliency Committee Chair resulted in similar reports.
“We hate to lose trees but we have plans to replace any trees that were lost in the storm as part of our tree master plan,” Chvatal-Keane told the Buzz.
While the GWNC Resiliency Committee has been focused on earthquake preparedness, Gilbert said the recent atmospheric river storm provided an opportunity to address less catastrophic events like intense storms to help residents be prepared.
Some of the credit for consistent power is likely to be due to improvements made by LADWP since last year’s storms. Last Spring, Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky, Hugo Soto-Martinez, and Nithya Raman introduced a motion asking LADWP to study what went wrong with the city’s power system and communications and to report back with both explanations and plans for improvements. In December, we reported on the DWP’s presentation to the City Council’s Energy and Environment Committee detailing how it has spent more than $830 million so far this year on infrastructure improvements, operational changes, and communications upgrades
Greater Wilshire area residents were lucky to have gotten through the last three days of rain without much more than soggy yards and streets. Most of the damage to the region has been reported in hillside areas of the city.
“More than 300 slides have been reported in Los Angeles since the start of the uninterrupted rainfall, including a torrent of rocks and mud that damaged homes Sunday night in the Studio City area, a mudslide in Beverly Crest that left cars stuck Monday in deep mud and another slide that damaged a Baldwin Hills home,” reported KNBC.com.
“As of this afternoon, across the city of L.A. there have been 307 mudslides, 35 incidents of buildings requiring inspections due to mudslides and slope failures, 7 buildings have been yellow tagged, and 5 buildings have been red tagged,” according to LAist.com.
Rainfall totals have broken records across the county and it’s still raining. UCLA reported that it received more than a foot of rain (12.46″ to be exact) in just 24 hours as a powerful Atmospheric River moved through the region. The threat of flash flooding has ended but the flood watch has been continued through early Wednesday morning, according to the National Weather Service. A few hours of moderate rain are possible later Wednesday afternoon and night. Experts are warning residents not to be misled by the break in rain on Wednesday morning – “more rain and mountain snow coming Wednesday afternoon and night.”
Stay tuned for more updates and stay safe!
