With hillsides already saturated from last week’s storm, the new system pummeling Southern California is causing life-threatening landslides that are damaging property.
One slope collapse occurred in Beverly Glen where residents near Beverly Glen Boulevard and Caribou Lane evacuated themselves after hearing a loud rumbling sound around 2 a.m. Monday.
Debris completely covered Caribou Lane early Monday morning, knocking one home off its foundation 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.
The residence was unoccupied at the time of the mudslide.
The slide was so loud that neighbors thought they heard an explosion.
“We heard a very loud rumbling sound and thought something exploded,” nearby resident Travis Longcore said. “But it was the house, probably powered by a debris flow, coming out into the road…it then hit another house and crushed a carport next to our property.”
“[The mudslide] sheared off the gas line…my neighbor was out and noticed the gas line and I was starting to smell it,” Longcore continued. “So, we all basically self-evacuated and the fire department came and evacuated another person who was unable to get out through her front door.”
Video captured by a KTLA news van traveling up Beverly Glen shows treacherous conditions that Spillman described as “an obstacle course,” with tree branches, garbage bins, rocks and large pools of water in the roadway.
As the day progressed, steady rain continued to fall on the area, leaving residents on edge.
“To see something this crazy happen to my neighbor’s house is a shock and a little scary,” a resident named Ryan told KTLA 5’s Lauren Lyster early Monday afternoon.
Click here for live updates on the storm battering Southern California.