Mud flows after rain

LA CAÑADA — A brief but intense rainstorm late Thursday night sent mud and rocks into the streets of several hillside neighborhoods, damaging cars and flooding half a dozen homes.

The storm dropped 1 to 2 inches of rain in less than 20 minutes, fire officials said, enough to loosen the fire-damaged slopes above La Crescenta and La Cañada Flintridge. About 11 p.m., mud began pouring over cement barriers installed last month by Los Angeles County Public Works crews, filling some streets and seeping into yards and homes.

Flooding in La Cañada was concentrated on Rock Castle Drive and several streets in the Paradise Valley neighborhood, including Ocean View Boulevard, Earnslow Drive and Normanton Drive.

La Cañada city engineer Ying Kwan said county officials had cleared most streets by mid-morning, and were assessing the conditions of local debris basins. Excavation work would begin today, he said.

Rock Castle Drive resident Beverly Stevens said she got out of bed several times throughout the night and early morning to watch the weather, and then to watch public works crews and emergency personnel try to clear the street. Fire trucks were struggling to make it up and down the muddy road, she said.

“What is so scary is there is two days of rain next week expected,” Stevens said. “And if this can happen with a drizzle, what is it going to be [with a serious storm]? You just never know. It is sad because it is going to be a way of life for three years.”

Don Reining, who has lived on Rock Castle Drive for 46 years, was coping with a soaked living room and entryway Friday morning. In his backyard, a retaining wall was partly collapsed and the swimming pool was filled with mud.

“Five minutes of rain, and next thing you know it’s coming in the house,” Reining said. “We called the fire department and they came. I already had sandbags up, but I didn’t have enough. And they put more in. They were wonderful.”

At the top of Ocean View Boulevard, residents, many wearing knee-high rubber boots, were busy cleaning up their yards.