Storm Inundates Downtown Laguna

By LB Indy Staff on December 22, 2010 5:42 PM | Comments (0)

Laguna Beach High School. Photo: Andrea Adelson.

Compiled by Indy staff

City crews worked feverishly throughout the day to re-open mud choked downtown streets after a pre-dawn downpour dumped 4 inches of rain and overwhelmed Laguna Beach storm drains, resulting in water and mud damage to at least 26 businesses and isolated homes around the city.

Al Ornales and crew work to clear a landslide that occurred on Summit Drive around 4 a.m. More photos here. Photo: Ted Reckas.

A 46-year-old Orange County woman died after being struck by a motorist who didn’t see her in a Coast Highway crosswalk near Anita Street in the rain, according to police and eyewitness Wade Chrisler, a patron of the nearby Penguin Café. Earlier, Chrisler had helped tenants escape from the lower level of a flooded duplex he manages on St. Ann’s Drive. “It was just like Armageddon this morning,” he said.

Photo: Andrea Adelson.

An emergency Red Cross shelter opened in the high school gym to take in displaced residents as well as homeless people, evacuees from the city’s shelter in Laguna Canyon, police Lt. Jason Kravetz said. Red Cross volunteer Fred Sherman said he expected about 60 temporary occupants Wednesday night, including the homeless who typically would bed down in the shelter.

Work crews toil to clear the aftermath of early morning flooding in downtown Laguna Beach. Photo: Mitch Ridder.

Residents of 13 homes in Hidden Valley, a box canyon off Park Avenue, were also evacuated after a geologist spotted signs of instability, Kravetz said in a statement.

Laguna Canyon Road was to remain closed for at least another day. Police officers blocking the canyon said the intersection of Highway 133 and 73 was, “a lake.”

Laguna Creek overwhelmed structures at Main Beach. Photo: Ted Reckas.

Filled sandbags are available to Laguna residents in the Festival of Arts parking lot, though no more major storms are forecast, a police statement said. More than 10 inches of rain has fallen the past week.

Linda Hess, a 20-year resident of Browncroft Street, credits her 21-year-old grandson, Jeremy, with saving her life. “If he hadn’t been there, we would not have gotten out,” said Hess, who stepped out of bed into brown water, where she slipped and fell. “Within five minutes I was in water up to my hips,” said Hess. She pushed her dogs through a ceiling-high window into the hands of her grandson, who later pulled his grandmother to safety. “He’s the life saver,” said Hess, who experienced a similar flood some 20 years earlier. This time, she has flood insurance.

Debris and mud clogged a huge storm drain at Wendt Terrace and Park Avenue, sending storm runoff into an overflow channel, a boulder-carrying river 10 feet wide and four feet deep, according to Irene Bernard, on Griffith Way, awakened at 3 a.m. by a roaring rumbling. The river gushed along Browncroft Street and onto St. Ann’s Drive, which wraps behind the high school field. At least three homes were flooded along St. Ann’s and water carried off at least six parked cars, which were deposited askew in a nearby park.

Flooded house in Laguna Canyon. Photo: Ted Reckas.

As the vehicles filled with water, car alarms began blaring about 4:45 a.m. That’s what awoke Tanya Krajina, of 637 St. Ann’s Drive, whose garage and car filled with water.

Laguna Beach artist Mike Hallinan, a resident of Thurston Park in Laguna Canyon, said one neighbor’s low-lying home was flooded and another’s roof partially collapsed.

He said the hill behind the park had partially given way and mud damage visible on nearby Milligan, between Canyon Acres and Woodland Drive.

Swarms of people came out to assist their neighbors, shoveling mud and putting up tarps. “It was exactly what you would hope your neighbors would do,” Hallinan said.

As in previous disasters, Hotel Laguna and Inn at Laguna Beach both checked in flood-displaced families who arrived in the early morning. All were offered free stays, at least in the short term. “We’re opening the doors to anyone who has been displaced,” said Michelle Wheeler, Hotel Laguna’s general manager, who took in a couple evacuated from a damaged apartment building.

Five families from the canyon area took up temporary residency at the Inn at Laguna Beach, said David Shepherd, general manager. At least two of the families have lost just about everything, including their car and most of their belongings, he said.
The Art of Fitness gym, in the 1000 block of Coast Highway, was also inundated by floodwaters gushing from an over-capacity alley storm drain. Three units of an apartment bordering the alley were also flooded, said the owner, who declined to be identified.
Before making her way to the gym to check out the damage, co-owner Marian Keegan had to unclog a debris-filled street drain outside her own home, waiting for the flood to recede before driving.

Laguna Canyon resident Ron Ellis said the hard rain began around 2 a.m. and by 3:30 a.m. the water was up to his ankles in front of his house.

“Floods are something you have to be prepared for. You can’t fix it during the flood,” he said, pointing to a small diversion redirecting water outside his gate and sparing his house.

Laguna Canyon resident Ron Ellis returns home with groceries. The low wall he built kept flood waters out. Photo: Ted Reckas.

His neighbors weren’t so lucky; houses on both sides of him were flooded a few feet deep. Dirk Maes, who lives a few doors down, said, “My house is ruined.”

Maggie and Larry Spencer, artists whose studio was inundated with water two feet deep, were digging in a large driveway turned mud bog, trying to find a drain in anticipation of the next torrent, predicted to hit that afternoon.

Maggie and Lary Spencer dig out. Photo: Ted Reckas.

Business owners and artists walked along the canyon road, which was closed to cars, on their way to check on offices and studios. At least one resident saw a silver lining. “I love it,” said artist Wolfgang Bloch. “It’s quiet, nobody’s around. You can hear the birds chirping.”

His studio had minor damage and he got all of his art raised off the floor.
The Pacific Marine Mammal Center was also inundated and damage is expected to be extensive, said Melissa L. Sciacca, director of development. “All patients have survived and have been evacuated to another holding facility until further notice,” she said.