Glendale officials said the area’s debris basin held up well during the weekend storm.
Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said officers had helped a resident dig out a car covered by mud on Markridge Road, but that no major damage had been reported in the wake of Saturday’s storm.
Still, city officials notified residents to be prepared to leave.
“Should there become a need for evacuations, we will be quick to do so,” he said Saturday afternoon. “What we ask people to do is to be ready to go.”
Many residents said they awoke in the middle of the night to a loud booming noise, what they thought was thunder but later realized was the debris basin giving way.
“This is definitely the worst I’ve seen,” said resident Danielle Burgner, who lives on a lower section of Ocean View Boulevard, citing the river of mud and debris that rushed past her house. “Before all we saw was rain, maybe light muddy water, but nothing like this.”
Briggs Avenue resident Vincent Ricardi said the storm was the worst he had seen in his 20 years living in La Crescenta.
In previous storms, a barrier built of cinder blocks had protected his home from the dirt easement out front.
Saturday, a river of water rushing down Briggs Avenue pushed through the barrier to form a river of mud that completely filled his 4,300-gallon backyard swimming pool.
“It’s pretty dramatic,” he said, pointing to the muddy pool.
“I’ve never seen anything like this.”
— Staff writer Megan O’Neil contributed to this
article.
