Mud

Gadflies are gripers who cry at most meetings because it’s their legal right. Most gadflies, although annoying, are harmless. At times, councilmen and women swat them and attack them on their face; but at others, they buckle and attack the face that speaks. Sadly, in our Jewel City, this breed of council member exists. Public office is no place for the thin-skinned. The United States Supreme Court expressed “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open, and that such debate may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasant sharp attacks on government and public officials” (Pittsburg Unified School District v. California School Employees Assn.)

Robert Chacon The latest rainstorm to batter the Los Angeles area unleashed the type of damage foothill residents have feared since storms began their assault more than two weeks ago. Mudslides, road washouts, flooding and damaged property are just some of the casualties of the weekend storms that forecasters expect will continue through Wednesday. In La Crescenta, a 90-foot-long retaining wall that holds up a small hill next to the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station collapsed at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, sending a large boulder and tons of concrete into a parking lot. "It sounded like mortars going off when it came down," Deputy Randall Forney said.

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.

Authorities warned hundreds of evacuated residents Tuesday evening that it could be a while before they’d be allowed to return, as emergency crews continued to assess the latest round of damage to water-logged hillsides. With many catch basins still full from a powerful storm this past weekend, mud and debris battered the northern neighborhoods of La Cañada Flintridge on Tuesday. Mud and sand piled up against the backsides of some homes just a few feet from their roof lines.

LA CRESCENTA — Crews worked quickly Tuesday afternoon to stack a labyrinth of sandbags around Steve Voleti’s home, blanketed in mud the day before. Nearly 300 bags made up the maze, which crews carefully formed into walls in Voleti’s backyard during the heavy downpour . The crew rushed to finish the job on Quail Canyon Road as powerful thunderstorms rumbled above. “This was totally unexpected,” Voleti said, referring to the mounds of mud and rocks from nearby Deukmejian Park that sild into his backyard and his pool.

Ron Banes lives on the eastern edge of Glendale where it meets Eagle Rock. ?During the flood of 1939, a lot of dirt came down from behind Forest Lawn,? he said. ?It flowed down onto Verdugo Road. The city hauled the mud into the box canyon; some of the mud then ran into our back yard and my Dad had to shovel it out.? During the war, many, including his father, fenced in plots down in that box canyon and planted Victory Gardens. His father raised squash, beans, peas, carrots, radishes, turnips, rhubarb, strawberries and tomatoes.

Robert Chacon A group of Montrose residents beseeched La Canada Flintridge city officials Wednesday to keep their homes safe from future rainstorms and help clean up the current mess. The rains have subsided but some Montrose residents aren't yet in the clear. They face a torrent of mud and water that continues to wash down on their homes, which sit at the base of a hill that starts in La Canada Flintridge. A major mudslide on the hill has already sent a flood of mud into their backyards, trapping cars in their driveways and causing residents to worry that the next rains will unleash more damage.

For about 15 hours this week, I've been sitting in Vrej Agajanian's AABC TV studio, serially interviewing each of the candidates for Glendale's City Council, School Board and City Clerk. For those of you keeping score at home, there are 12 candidates for council, seven for school board and two for clerk. There is a fourth office on the ballot, City Treasurer, but Rafi Manoukian, a current councilman, is running unopposed. Still, that's a total of 21 people for the three contested races.

“You cannot help but learn more as you take the world into your hands. Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.” - John Updike At the West Coast Mud Slingers exhibition at the Brand Library Art Galleries, a selection of California-based artists with varied backgrounds and styles bring to life their intimate yet vastly diverse relationship with ceramics. The title of the exhibition, which is curated by Ricky Maldonado, borrows its name from ceramics lingo; a “mud slinger” is someone who crafts pottery or uses a potters wheel.

Gadflies are gripers who cry at most meetings because it’s their legal right. Most gadflies, although annoying, are harmless. At times, councilmen and women swat them and attack them on their face; but at others, they buckle and attack the face that speaks. Sadly, in our Jewel City, this breed of council member exists. Public office is no place for the thin-skinned. The United States Supreme Court expressed “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open, and that such debate may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasant sharp attacks on government and public officials” (Pittsburg Unified School District v. California School Employees Assn.)

Local mountains could see snow levels drop to 3,500 feet as a new colder storm front moves in today. Rainfall totals should average approximately 1 inch, but could be higher in some areas. This new weather system is not expected to be as strong as the weekend storm that the pummeled the area, causing street flooding and toppling trees, according to the National Weather Service. Still, up to 8 inches of snow could fall on local mountains, with the potential for more when a second storm front moves in late Thursday, according to the weather agency.

GLENDALE — Other than a small backyard landslide, street flooding and fallen branches, Glendale fared relatively well compared to other Southland cities that were pummeled by a fierce storm on Wednesday. The overnight rainstorm caused a tree to lean on a home's roof on the 400 block of Spencer Street, officials said. A rock also crushed through a home's wall on the 1500 block of Melwood Drive. No one was injured. Glendale fire crews also assisted in a morning search of the Los Angeles River after receiving several reports that a man had possibly fallen in the quick-moving water at Studio City and needed to be rescued, officials said.

LA CRESCENTA — Los Angeles County officials this week warned foothill residents to stay vigilant against possible debris flows despite forecasts of a drier winter. Representatives from Los Angeles County public works, sheriff's and fire departments addressed the Crescenta Valley Town Council on Thursday night to brief residents on preparations for the coming rainy season. While weather agencies have forecast a drier "La Niña" winter rain season, officials still urged residents to lay sandbags and take other precautions to protect their homes from mud and debris.

CITY HALL — Officials on Monday announced the upcoming auction of one of five homes acquired by the city as a result of a $12-million settlement to homeowners whose properties were damaged in a January 2005 mudslide. The mudslide Jan. 10, 2005, in the 1600 block of Gladys Drive came down onto Glenmore Boulevard during heavy rains, causing severe damage to several properties and forcing several residents to evacuate. Nine residents filed lawsuits against the city, claiming shoddy construction of storm gutters with inadequate capacity to handle the rains.

Ron Banes lives on the eastern edge of Glendale where it meets Eagle Rock. ?During the flood of 1939, a lot of dirt came down from behind Forest Lawn,? he said. ?It flowed down onto Verdugo Road. The city hauled the mud into the box canyon; some of the mud then ran into our back yard and my Dad had to shovel it out.? During the war, many, including his father, fenced in plots down in that box canyon and planted Victory Gardens. His father raised squash, beans, peas, carrots, radishes, turnips, rhubarb, strawberries and tomatoes.

LA CRESCENTA — As a pile of dirt excavated from foothill debris basins has grown into a massive dumping site, Glendale and Burbank police helicopters have been regularly monitoring the area. Officers make daily flyovers of the Dunsmuir Sediment Placement site, which is adjacent to Deukmejian Wilderness Park. Los Angeles County Public Works crews began dumping loads of material from area debris basins after the Feb. 6 mudflows in La Cañada Flintridge. Concerns that the pile could give way during a heavy rainstorm have prompted the need to keep an eye on the growing dirt pile, which sits above a row of Markridge Road homes, said Sgt. Steve Robertson of the Glendale and Burbank Joint Air Support Unit.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies went door to door in the foothills Friday night, telling residents of 224 homes that they needed to evacuate. Again. The call was the sixth of its type since January, and a call that La Cañada Flintridge residents Lyn and Bud Slotky had heeded five times before. Not this time. “After Feb. 6, we saw where the mud was going to flow,” Bud told me, explaining his and his wife’s reason for staying. “We’re at risk, but not high risk.