The song “It Never Rains In Southern California” has proven to be a myth…at least this year!
During the month of January alone, Southern California was hit by a series of some of the biggest storms in recent history, causing flash floods, tree emergencies and power line failures as well as evacuation orders. The storms created flooding on roads and freeways and stranded motorists throughout the City.
The City’s MyLA311 system received approximately 3,000 street pothole requests from Jan 1st to January 26th and 604 pothole requests were received in just four days, January 19th through January 23rd . The National Weather Service for the Los Angeles region wrote, “It is likely the strongest storm within the last six years and possibly even as far back as December 2004 or January 1995.”
The Department of Public Works, which has five bureaus -- the Bureau of Street Services (BSS), Bureau of Engineering (BOE), Bureau of Sanitation (BOS), Bureau of Street Lighting (BSL), and Bureau of Contract Administration (BCA) -- worked tirelessly to tackle the demands of these significant storms. In terms of damage assessment, BSS, BOE, and BOS faced the biggest challenges. BSS removed debris and large boulders from roadways in the Laurel Canyon and Mulholland Drive areas, while BOE performed field geotechnical investigations and mobilized a contractor to remove debris from the roadway and to stabilize slopes.
The BOS’s Terminal Island Water Reclamation Plant pipe galleries were flooded and their LA Wastewater Integrated Network Systems were severely damaged by the storms.
The Bureau of Street Lighting restored utilities and circuit failures to street light posts that were damaged by fallen trees, while BCA provided emergency protective measures as a result of City property slope failure, structure slipping, and private residence landslides into the City’s public right-of-way.
The storms also had a significant financial impact, with preliminary costs associated with the storms estimated to be $3.6 million.
While January was hit hard, heavy rains continued through February. The Department is still collecting data and continues to receive a high volume of storm-related requests, but preliminary data reveals a continuing trend of rain in Southern California!