As Southern California got battered by another round of storms, a surprise mudslide caused the evacuation of some 800 homes this weekend in the small community of La Cañada Flintridge.  As the rains got heavier Saturday, the torrent of debris flowing down the mountain pushed a ten-ton boulder into a catch basin, effectively plugging it up and causing the mud to overflow. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich told the Pasadena Star News that the scene look like a “war zone.”

"I was really shocked by what I saw,'' Antonovich said. "The homes destroyed, automobiles pushed out of the way by the storms, the mudslides moving heavy concrete barriers ... it was as if you were at Universal Studios on a studio tour seeing a war zone set.''


The mudslides caught emergency responders by surprise, as weather predictions were for much milder rain.  Antonovich was critical of the US Forest Service, however, who he feels took too long to put out the 250 square miles of fire in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains last year, leaving his community without the protection the vegetation once provided. La Cañada Flintridge, by no coincidence, was the community closest to these fires. At least 42 homes were reported damaged in the mud slides, which knocked over cars, trucks, an even multi-ton concrete barriers. No deaths or serious injuries were reported.


"Hopefully the federal government will respond and make reforms so we won't have the same problems of inaction in the next fire,'' he said.

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