Torrance Residents Spend Day Cleaning Up Following Flash Flooding

TORRANCE (CBSLA.com)  —  Residents in Torrance Wednesday continued to dry off and cleanup following flash flooding there Tuesday.

More than two inches of rain fell in just about two hours.

Some storm drains had trouble keeping up with the heavy downpour and many cars got stuck -- stranded with water reaching their windows.

KCAL9's Randy Paige spoke to the owner of a precision machine shop who worried about how the rain affected his business.

When the rains flooded in, Paige said all of the expensive equipment was unplugged.

The big question of course, did the machines sustain enough damage that they no longer operate?

The moment of truth will likely come some time Thursday, Paige reports.

"I'm hoping that all the machines are running. I don't want to take a loss. It would be a big loss, it would be irreplaceable," said Tito Gonzalez, owner of Hugo Engineering.

Residents told Paige it felt as though all the rains came down all in about 90 minutes starting at about 4:30 in the afternoon.

Gonzalez reported constant bailing and even then it was hard to keep the water down.

"I've been going nonstop for 18 hours," Gonzalez said.

He said the shop -- which makes parts for the aerospace industry -- has been in business for 30 years.

Gonzalez said he's never seen rain like yesterday.

"Not even close," he said, "not even close."