Several slides close part of Mulholland Drive. Lauren Coronado reports for Today in LA on Thursday Feb. 8, 2024.
Mudslides above and below Mulholland Drive closed a stretch of the road Wednesday a day after a record-setting storm brought steady rain to Los Angeles.
The slides were reported around midday Wednesday between Skyline and Bowmont drives, just south of Fryman Canyon Park. The curving canyon road will be closed in the area for repairs.
Video from NewsChopper4 Wednesday afternoon showed crumbling hillsides above and below the road in at least three locations. On Thursday, there appeared to be seven slides with mud covering part of the road in some areas.
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There were no reports of any injuries.
City Councilwoman Nithya Raman wrote in a statement that the city responded to several reports of slides on residential streets near Laurel Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, Benedict Canyon and Beverly Glen.
Drivers were advised to avoid the areas.
The famous road named after William Mulholland, the civil engineer behind Los Angeles' expansive water supply system and LA Aqueduct, opened in 1924. The main part of the road connects the Cahuenga Pass to the east and with the Sepulveda Pass to the west, providing expansive views of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley to the north and the LA basin to the south as drivers traverse the Hollywood Hills and the eastern Santa Monica Mountains. It connects residents to several neighborhoods and north-south canyon roads along the way.
Rain from a storm that arrived Sunday began to diminish late Tuesday. The system delivered 7.03 inches of rain Sunday and Monday for downtown LA's highest two-day rainfall total in the month of February, typically the region's wettest month of the year. It was the third-wettest two-day total on record for downtown Los Angeles.
Flood watches are in effect Wednesday for parts of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, where scattered showers with brief heavy rainfall are in the forecast. More widespread moderate to heavy showers are possible Wednesday night.
The rain chance continues through the rest of the week.
Los Angeles County is expected to receive about another half-inch to 1.5 inches of rain by Friday across most of the area with more in mountain communities. The additional rain raises the slide threat on already soaked hillsides. Between Sunday and Tuesday, the LAFD said it received more than 300 reports of slides, some leaving buildings red-tagged and uninhabitable.
