West Hollywood faces long recovery from massive water main break: ‘It was like whitewater rapids’
Tadeh Ghazalian, owner of Dialog Cafe, a family business of 20 years, is struggling in the wake of the water main breakon Sunset Bouelvard.
His entire store is completely closed, facing structural damage, food and product loss and a complete wipeout of their inventory.
“The biggest thing is that there is so much water, there’s so much sand that went through this place,” Ghazalian said. “It’s going to take a while before we get everything up and running again.”
The rupture of a 3-foot-wide trunk line Thursday morning sent 17 million gallons of water into a West Hollywood neighborhood, from the Sunset Strip downhill beyond Santa Monica Boulevard. Officials are still trying to assess the damage but say those impacted face a long recovery.
West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman estimated that between 150 and 200 cars were damaged or destroyed in the flood. Officials are going door to door to tell residents how they can file claims with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to pay for water damage.
A handful of residential units were inundated, including a few where electricity had to be shut off because their electrical panels were compromised. Most of the damage was centered in underground garages where water had to be pumped out.
Standing in a garage full of mud and wrecked cars on Friday, Joe Artle, who manages an apartment building on Palm Avenue and Cynthia Street, stared bewildered into the distance trying to figure out what to do next.
Artle, 70, was trying to sleep when his neighbor and friend, Rudy Vargas, came banging on his door around 3 a.m. Thursday, panicked, urging him to get his car out of the underground garage because of the flooding.
He rushed out of the apartment and started trying to wake his neighbors. They were only able to save maybe four of the 20 cars in the garage, Artle said.
“The water was so intense,” he said. “It was like whitewater rapids, like when you’re river rafting. You couldn’t stand in it; it would knock you over.”
Artle said the broken pipe unleashed the worst damage he’s seen in the 25 years he’s lived in the building. Most of its 35 tenants lost vehicles or belongings stored in the garage. The building’s washer and dryer units were also destroyed in the deluge.
Vargas, 40, said his adrenaline was so high that he wasn’t completely processing the situation as it was happening. When he navigated his way outside it was akin to crossing a river, he said. He had to grip onto street poles just to keep himself up.
“Sometimes, it rains hard enough that water comes into here, and it floods the garage, but it hasn’t been that bad, so when I came out to the kitchen window to see, and I saw it was really bad, that’s when I’m like, ‘panic mode,’” said Vargas, who has lived in the building for about 13 years.
Sunset Boulevard remains closed due the sink hole caused by the rupture.
Staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.