Mudslides impact Beverly Crest, Pacific Palisades neighborhoods; close lanes of I-5 in Castaic
Rain caused some trouble in the Beverly Crest community as an early morning mudslide covered about a quarter acre in a residential area, blocking at least two driveways, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The slide was reported around 8 a.m. Wednesday in the 9000 block of Hidden Valley Place.
Geologists and Department of Building and Safety officials were called to the scene to determine safety for residents. Two homes were evacuated for a short time however, until officials were able to assess the situation
"There were no life hazards. There was no rescues," said Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Patrick Leonard. "The homes are not in any danger, they're not going to red tag them."
No injuries were reported and no homes were impacted, except for the driveway blockage.
The same could not be said for the residents impacted by the landslide in Pacific Palisades, which started to give way on Sunday. Land has continued to move over recent days, with dirt now beginning to pile onto the roof of a home at the base of a hillside in the 900 block of N. Las Lomas Avenue.
Building and Safety officials have yellow-tagged the home at the top of the hill and red-tagged the one at the bottom, displacing a family of eight as the situation continues to change.
The incident has others living near the spot of the landslide concerned that their homes could be next.
"So I'm worried all this rain — what's going to happen to my home?" asked one neighbor. "If anything happens to them, it's going to be a domino affect — my home also sliding unfortunately. So, it's pretty scary."
Yet another mudslide forced the temporary closure of several southbound lanes of the I-5 Freeway in Castaic early Wednesday afternoon, with land beginning to give way under the shoulder of the leftmost lanes. In an effort to protect drivers from any sudden occurrences, Caltrans worked placed k-rail barriers around the broken road as a precaution.
"The landslide is still saturated and therefore too unstable to deal with right now," said Caltrans's Eric Menjivar. "We will have to begin removing material at the top, not the bottom, because if we start at the bottom, it will just continue to fall. Caltrans has a team of experts including geotechnical engineers and a contractor to mobilize additional equipment and workers when the time is right."
According to Caltrans, there are actually three different slides along the I-5 in Castaic, but workers are unable to do anything to solve the issue because the earth is far too saturated.
There was no timetable for when the repairs would be completed.
As usual during periods of heavy rain, Southland streets suffered from slick roadways and flooding in places like Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Studio City. Water pooled so deep in some places that it reached the lower portion of vehicles parked along the road.
A brief lull in the storm was expected to last throughout the remainder of Wednesday, before a period of instability threatened to bring thunderstorms and possible risk of tornados early Thursday.
