Historic storm sends debris through LA's Hollywood Hills and leaves 1.1 million without power
Published:Monday | February 5, 2024 | 2:51 PM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A storm of historic proportions unleashed record levels of rain over parts of Los Angeles on Monday, sending mud and boulders down hillsides dotted with multimillion-dollar homes, posing grave dangers for the city's large homeless population and knocking out power for more than a million people in California.
The storm was the second one fuelled by an atmospheric river to hit the state over the span of days.
About 1.4 million people in the Los Angeles area, including the Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills, were under a flash flood warning Monday morning.
Up to 9 inches (23 centimetres) of rain had already fallen in the area, with more expected, according to the National Weather Service, which called the flash flooding and threat of mudslides "a particularly dangerous situation."
Already crews were rescuing people from swift-moving water in various parts of Southern California.
Gushing rivers carried mud, rocks and objects from people's multimillion-dollar homes, including coolers, ladders and plastic crates, in Studio City, an area named after a movie studio lot, on the backside of the Hollywood Hills. Several homes were damaged, including one with a crumpled garage door from the debris slide.
A record 4.1 inches (10.41 centimetres) of rain fell Sunday in downtown Los Angeles, blowing past the previous record of 2.55 inches (6.48 centimetres) set in 1927, the National Weather Service said.
That didn't stop the Grammy Awards on Sunday night from continuing as planned at downtown's Crypto.com Arena.
The weather service forecast up to 8 inches (20 centimetres) of rainfall across Southern California's coastal and valley areas, with 14 inches (35 centimetres) possible in the foothills and mountains over the next two days.
More than 474,061 homes, businesses or other locations were without electricity statewide on Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us.
Commuters stepped through several inches of floodwater as they rushed to catch trains at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.
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