Serious damage was also reported in the Haskell Drive/Harter Lane area, as well as on Arroyo Summit Drive just off Angeles Crest Highway. At least nine homes sustained serious structural damage, Mayor Laura Olhasso said, and 17 homes sustained moderate damage. Countless additional properties were impacted by debris that filled driveways and yards.
“Mother Nature won today,” Olhasso said. “It makes you heartsick to look at it, it really does.”
A second heavy storm was expected to hit the foothills mid-afternoon. Mandatory evacuation orders were issued at 11 a.m. for 247 La Cañada homes. Several hundred homes in La Crescenta, Glendale and Acton were also evacuated. An American Red Cross evacuation center was opened at La Cañada High School, 4463 Oak Grove Drive.
County crews have made it an ongoing priority to clear area debris basins since the Station fire swept through the Angeles National Forest in late August. Efforts were stepped up in mid-January when a week of heavy storms filled the basins with mud and other debris. Mullally Basin was at 90% capacity when rain began to fall Friday, County Public Works spokesman Bob Spencer said.
“The precipitation was more than was anticipated,” Spencer said. “Weather forecasting is not an exact science and we were as prepared as we could be.”
Residents in the affected areas had little warning, they said. Kay Mangassarian, who lives just below the Mullally Debris Basin on Manistee Drive, said that the heavy rain kept her and her two children awake for much of the night but that the debris basin seemed to be functioning properly. At around 5 a.m. mud began spilling into the yard and then into the house, she said. The force of the debris was so strong they couldn’t open any of the doors to escape.
