Crews on Monday continued their massive cleanup in the San Fernando Valley after Friday’s deluge that left one man dead, a dangerous sinkhole, downed trees and thousands without power.
On Monday morning, officials reopened a single lane of Laurel Canyon Boulevard in both directions in Studio City after a 20-foot sinkhole swallowed two cars late Friday.
Elena Stern, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, said Woodbridge Street east of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, where the sinkhole was located, would remain closed for two to three weeks.
Laurel Canyon was set to be closed again between Moorpark Street and Ventura Place starting at 8 p.m. Monday and was scheduled to reopen at 6 a.m. today to allow crews to install a bypass sewer line, Stern said.
• RELATED STORY: 1 rescued after sinkhole swallows 2 cars in Studio City
The sinkhole was probably caused by a combination of excessive rain and a possible sewer failure, city public works officials said. No sewer overflows occurred and all the wastewater was contained in the sewer pipe, they said.
Los Angeles firefighters said they rescued a 48-year-old woman who managed to escape from her car after the asphalt had collapsed around 8:15 p.m. Friday. She was found screaming for help atop her overturned vehicle. After she was rescued, a second vehicle, which had been vacated, fell into the sinkhole.
A GoFundMe page that identified the rescued woman as makeup artist Stephanie Scott had raised more than $15,000 for Scott’s medical bills and other expenses related to the incident as of Sunday afternoon.
The storm that slammed into the region on Friday killed four residents as it flooded freeways, caused mudslides and blew down trees and power lines, leaving tens of thousands in the dark.
Los Angeles Department of Transportation spokesman Bruce Gillman added traffic officers would be out supporting the closure.
• RELATED PHOTOS: Crews work to repair a Laurel Canyon sinkhole
Stern said that since 9 a.m. Friday there had been 1,200 tree emergency requests, 320 pothole requests, 246 tree obstruction requests — some of which turned out to be emergencies — 108 palm frond requests, 78 flooding requests and 64 land/mudslide requests.
“The number of trees and number of potholes and tree emergency requests point to a dramatic incident,” Stern said.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials on Monday were working to restore service to 1,500 customers while more than 84,000 customers have had service restored since Friday’s storm, authorities said.
In a statement, officials said crews will work throughout the day to restore service to customers in the city of Los Angeles.
“We could be getting new outages depending on the weather or if the rain comes in with any velocity,” DWP spokeswoman Kim Hughes said.
Additionally, officials said, customer service representatives will call customers who are single households in neighborhoods to confirm that power remains out and in some cases help to troubleshoot breaker switches where power was restored but the problem remains.
As of 2 p.m. Sunday, more than 10,800 electric customers remained without power, down from 85,600 customers at the height of the storm on Friday afternoon.
By 10 p.m. Sunday, the number had been whittled down to about 4,800 customers, said DWP’s Joseph Ramallo. The outage areas included Watts, Eagle Rock, Lake Balboa, Palms, Canoga Park and Winnetka.
The Sepulveda Basin in the Valley was reopened Monday at 10 a.m. after the weekend storms, authorities said.
In Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Courtland Myers said that despite the rains the area “fared pretty well” even with downed trees. Iron Canyon and Sand Canyon areas were still being cleaned up Monday.
At least five deaths across Southern California were blamed on the storm, including a man who was electrocuted in Sherman Oaks when a tree fell atop power lines that he apparently came in contact with.
• RELATED STORY: Man killed after falling tree branch takes down power line in Sherman Oaks
In addition, a 13-year-old Irvine girl sustained critical injuries Friday when a 40-foot-tall tree fell on her as she walked along a greenbelt near Dewberry Way and Sandburg Way. She remained hospitalized.
In Lake Balboa, Los Angeles firefighters plucked three people out of the water from within the flooded Sepulveda Basin. One of the rescued was treated at a nearby hospital. An 8-year-old boy and his 12-year-old brother who tried to save him were rescued in Santa Ana after getting swept away in the rain-swollen Santa Ana River.
Light showers will continue through early today, then dry conditions should prevail until the weekend when stormy conditions and cooler temperatures move into Southern California, Stephen Harrison, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said Monday.
“It could be a decent rainmaker,” Harrison said.
Staff writers Scott Schwebke and Brenda Gazzar and City News Service contributed to this report.
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