Water Main Break Floods Sunset Boulevard In Pacific Palisades
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A water main break caused major flooding in a Pacific Palisades neighborhood Sunday night that crews were still working to repair on Monday morning.
A 16-inch water main burst at 7:43 p.m. near Sunset Boulevard and Muskingum Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The break turned Sunset Boulevard into a river and flooded the underground garages for several apartment buildings.
One garage was flooded with four to six feet of water. Firefighters swam through the floodwaters, looking for victims. One person who got trapped was rescued, but no one was hurt.
"We were in rescue-mode, actually suited up in wetsuits," LAFD Battalion Chief Joe Everett said. "Fortunately, we have no victims."
The water was so deep that L.A. County lifeguards were also called in to search the parking lot.
No residents had to be evacuated, the fire department said. LAFD crews were pumping water Monday out of the flooded garage.
"It's about six feet of water. We're going to go into what we call a dewatering, we're gonna use our pumpers actually, create pressure and pump this water out, like I said we'll put it in a suitable place down into the canyon or the storm drains and hopefully we'll be back in operation shortly," Everett said late Sunday night. "DWP is working very, very hard to get this shut off and also get water back to the public here for their use."
Sunset Boulevard, meanwhile, remained shut down between El Medio Avenue and Muskingum Avenue. The closure could last into Tuesday while L.A. Department of Water and Power crews replace the broken pipe and repair the damaged roadway.
It was unclear how many LADWP customers were without water.
Only one apartment building had reported damage as of Sunday night.
The L.A. Police Department and the L.A. Department of Transportation were also assisting.
The cause of the break was unknown.
