Mudslides crash through homes, cause evacuations across Southern California

With torrential rains saturating the soil for a second straight day, many Southern California communities are beginning to see the ground give way, sending mud and debris onto their properties and into their homes Monday.

Beverly Crest

A mudslide significantly damaged multiple homes in the Beverly Crest area Monday morning.

The incident was reported just after 8:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of Beverly Drive.

“Firefighters assisted stranded residents from seven homes evacuate, including six adults and nine children,” the Los Angeles Fire Department stated in a news alert.

Six of the homes were damaged and another one is threatened, according to the news alert.

The Department of Building and Safety was called to assess and possibly red-tag any seriously compromised structures.

“Thankfully, no one was trapped,” the Fire Department stated about the incident.

Beverly Glen

A slope collapsed in Beverly Glen where residents near Beverly Glen Boulevard and Caribou Lane decided to evacuate their homes after hearing a loud rumbling sound in the middle of the night.

Debris completely covered Caribou Lane early Monday morning nearly destroying one home and causing extensive damage to several others. 

Rocks, plywood and other muddy debris were “all that was left of the house,” KTLA 5’s Eric Spillman said. A piano had even been washed out of the home and turned upside down on the street.

Studio City

A mudslide caused significant damage to two homes and prompted officials to evacuate a Studio City neighborhood overnight.

The slide was reported around 9:10 p.m. Sunday in the 11900 block of Lockridge Road.

Firefighters helped evacuate all nine homes on Lockridge, getting 16 residents and their pets out of the area.

The two damaged homes were considered uninhabitable and have been red-tagged.

Baldwin Hills

Dion Peronneau says she was awoken by the sound of cracking around 4 a.m. Monday morning. When she looked outside, she saw a tree coming down as a wall of mud slid toward her home in Los Angeles’ Baldwin Hills neighborhood.

“We put chairs up as if that was really going to stop the mud from breaking the glass,” Peronneau told KTLA 5 News. “The next thing we saw was that it took the whole sliding door off.”

Over the next several hours, Peronneau could only watch helplessly as the mud overwhelmed her backyard patio and ultimately crashed through a bedroom window. 

Peronneau said her insurance agent told her she could stay in the home as long as there was no structural damage. “I’m staying here,” she said standing next to a massive pile of mud in her bedroom.

La Habra

A retaining wall crushed several parked vehicles as rain poured down in La Habra Sunday night.

The incident was reported shortly after 6:30 p.m. when the wall collapsed in the 900 block of West Las Lomas Street.

Video from the scene showed four cars damaged in the incident were left covered in mud and concrete.

Sherman Oaks

A mudslide partially buried at least one car on Longview Valley Road with mud seen almost all the way up the front of a nearby garage in Sherman Oaks.

Mud filled much of the roadway, and rushing water, including a strong stream coming down a nearby hillside, covered the rest.

Area residents were out in force clearing mud and opening up paths of escape for rainwater.

The incidents all come as a potent atmospheric river storm slammed the region Sunday night and continued to dump rain on the region Monday.

Flood watches and warnings were issued for much of the Los Angeles metro area, Ventura County and the mountains of Riverside and San Bernardino counties where up to 14 inches of rain was possible, according to the National Weather Service.