UMBRELLAS IN BLOOM; DELUGE RENEWS TRAFFIC, MUD PROBLEMS.Byline: Lisa Van Proyen and David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writers Rain pounded the Southland on Thursday evening, bringing with it flooded roadways, fender benders and frazzled nerves for residents whose homes were hardest hit. ``They've gone through hell. They live there 35 years and they've lost everything,'' said Jo Padden of West Hills, who took in her neighbors Rita and Virgil Palub - whose home Thursday was packed with mud inches from the ceiling. With Thursday's rains, the couple's home continued to slide from its foundation as more water and mud poured inside their dining room, said Padden, who has been routinely checking the elderly couple's home. Last week, the Palub family's Malden Street home was among five houses that were devastated dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. during a mudslide. ``Their avocado tree is in their dining room, along with their rose bushes and mud two inches from their ceiling,'' Padden said in between serving dinner to her neighbors Thursday night. As of 10 p.m. Thursday, Van Nuys had received three-quarters of an inch of rain since the downpour started about 3 p.m., the National Weather Service said. City crews and fire personnel were on heightened alert for any calls, but by late Thursday night, only minor incidents were reported, such as small amounts of mud flowing onto residental lots, said David Keim, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Department of Public Works public works pl.n. Construction projects, such as highways or dams, financed by public funds and constructed by a government for the benefit or use of the general public. Noun 1. . The Sepulveda Dam Located in Los Angeles, California, the Sepulveda Dam is a project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, built in 1941 to control winter flood waters along the Los Angeles River. Recreation Area was closed to traffic at 10:30 p.m., police said. In Hollywood, firefighters evacuated 14 people from a 16-unit apartment complex in the 5900 block of Carlton Way at 7:20 p.m. after a wall in the three-story building was buckling, likely because of the rainwater, said Bob Collis, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), also known as the Los Angeles City Fire Department to distinguish it from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. It is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for the city of Los Angeles. . No injuries were reported. As the rain continued Thursday, weather experts said El Nino is losing strength. But don't expect its demise any time soon. Satellite images released Thursday by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in Pasadena show the pool of warm ocean water that forms El Nino's heart thinning along the equator off South America South America, fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . The pool has been losing volume, with occasional swings up and down, since November. But as the storm charged into Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, on Thursday, researchers warned that the effects of the most powerful El Nino on record could last a long time, possibly into April. ``There's a light at the end of the tunnel,'' said Bill Patzert at JPL (language) JPL - JAM Programming Language. . ``But it's a very long tunnel.'' Images from the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite showed that the pool of unusually warm water in the eastern equatorial Pacific has lost between 50 percent and 60 percent of its volume since November. Although still large, it is no longer as deep as it once was, extending perhaps 200 feet below the surface of the ocean instead of 500 feet. But the water at the surface is still several degrees warmer than normal and is still pumping moisture into the air. ``It will go away in the not too distant future, but the intensity at the surface is still there,'' said Lee Fu, chief scientist for the satellite. Klaus Weickmann, research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Noun 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and in Boulder, Colo., said the rough weather plaguing California will probably continue. ``You're not out of the woods yet,'' he said. Weather experts predicted up to an inch of rain from Thursday's storm, which they said will clear by early today. But another similar storm is expected to hit Saturday night, said Rob Krohn, a meteorologist for the Weather Service in Oxnard. Both of these storms are expected to hit Central and Northern California harder than the Southland, meteorologists Atmospheric scientists
A snow advisory was also in effect in Southern California mountain ranges above 5,000 feet, with 4 to 6 inches of snow predicted, Krohn said. Southland residents may see two to three days of dry, warmer weather beginning Tuesday, said Tony Zartman, a meteorologist for AccuWeather Inc., based in State College, Pa. Meanwhile, teams of inspectors from Gov. Pete Wilson's Office of Emergency Services emergency services Emergency care '…services …necessary to prevent death or serious impairment of health and, because of the danger to life or health, require the use of the most accessible hospital available and equipped to furnish those services' were scheduled in the next couple of days to conduct site inspections for preliminary damage assessments, said Fred Messick, a spokesman for the agency. On Wednesday, Wilson declared the city and county of Los Angeles in a state of emergency, with an estimated $16 million in damage to private and public structures and facilities so far this rain season. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos PHOTO (1 -- color) Several women try to stay dry while waiting for a bus Thursday at the corner of Oxnard Street and Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills. John McCoy/Daily News (2) Thursday's rain cuts visibility along the Golden State Freeway The Golden State Freeway is a north-south freeway running through Kern County and Los Angeles County, California. Originally built as U.S. Highway 99, it was re-signed as Interstate 5 in 1964. north of the Foothill Freeway. David R. Crane/Daily News |
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