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Photos: The Damage Rainpocalypse Is Doing In SoCal
The biggest SoCal rainstom in nearly three years has been hitting hard this weekend, causing evacuations in the foothills, sweeping one man down a canal, getting a reporter stuck in the mud and causing all sorts of other mayhem.
People who lived in the foothill areas of Azusa and Monrovia were under mandatory evacuation as of about 1:45 p.m. Though the National Weather Service had downgraded the storm alert to advisory status from warning, they said large-scale mudflows could still affect the hillside areas, and expected residents could return home around 6 p.m.
A half-foot of water was reported flooding all four northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway near Atwater Village just after 2 p.m. Saturday, City News Service reported.
A 26-year-old woman named Katherine Valle was killed just after 2 a.m. when another driver hit her spun out car on the rain-slick 110 Freeway near Dodger Stadium, CHP and Coroner’s Lt. David Smith said. The 40-year-old man who hit the car was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.
And two others were hospitalized with major injuries after a head-on collision on West Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills at around 2:30 a.m., Beverly Hills police reported.
More than 2,400 Los Angeles residents were still without power by 9 a.m., official said, with crews working overtime to restore power.
National Weather Service expects snowfall to reach 5,500 feet overnight.
See some of the damage reported by Twitter and Instagram users below.
#rain in Los Angeles claims the @BobsBigBoy in Toluca Lake #BobDown @CurbedLA pic.twitter.com/uIfKMuIp2L
— Julianne Reiser (@RogueMomLA) February 28, 2014
@LAPublicWorks RD556 crew took the driver of this car to safety using a bucket loader to travel through the mud. pic.twitter.com/WSwrVnRKbX
— LA Co Public Works (@LACoPublicWorks) February 28, 2014
The LA river gushing all the rain fall out to sea instead of in putting into the ground #lariver #la pic.twitter.com/0tctGKMsgv
— Anthony Batt (@djabatt) February 28, 2014
When LA rain meets hillsides burned from the #colbyfire, mudslides. Hicrest road is washed out. W/@jackhannahcnn pic.twitter.com/hk7OBX8jvG
— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) February 28, 2014
A Brit in the Los Angeles rain is like a pig in sh*t. Look at the LA River! pic.twitter.com/bqwRvzfQZa
— Stuart Wood (@stuiewood) February 28, 2014