Surprise, we’re getting dumped on by another winter storm. The cloudy skies let loose with a prelude of thunder and drizzle, which soon erupted into a steady rain in Burbank shortly after 10 a.m. This is a cold rainstorm. The high might reach 60 in Media City, but I doubt it.

The rain is expected to hang around through tonight. The prediction is for cloudy skies and a 20 percent chance of rain tomorrow. Hopefully, it will not rain on Sunday’s Oscar festivities.

Photo: Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times — a runaway mud flow sweeps away trees and rocks and races down a street in La Cañada Flintridge today. Check out the L.A. Times storm photo gallery here.

A vicious storm sucker punched the Southland early this morning, unleashing landslides, swift mud flows, causing power outages, damaging around 43 homes, and forcing evacuations. Some areas got as much as four inches of rain from this latest series of stormy weather.

Here in Burbank, I was awakened by loud, rumbling thunder followed by some intense pounding rain on the roof before dawn. By this morning’s light, the devastation was shockingly clear in the nearby fire scorched hills. At a news conference this afternoon, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich described a hard hit La Cañada Flintridge neighborhood as looking like a  ”… war zone area…” 

In La Cañada Flintridge 24 properties were damaged, including a dozen homes which were heavily damaged or destroyed. As mud flows careened down streets, as many as 25 vehicles were swept away along with trees, boulders, and debris. 540 homes in La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, and Acton have been evacuated; details on that on this Los Angeles County Public Works website.

Also, 300 more evacuations ordered in neighborhoods burned by fires two years ago in nearby Sierra Madre.

Throughout Los Angeles and Orange County, flooding, mudslides, weather-related accidents on streets and roads. Also, repair crews worked all day to restore power to more than 20 thousand users; some still in the dark this evening.    

Tonight, the forecast is for scattered showers and cloudy skies. Sunshine is on tap for Sunday, but by Tuesday and Wednesday, another storm is due to arrive and it could be just as much of a terror as the Saturday morning deluge.

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — A Burbank city crew on East Angeleno Avenue, between Glenoaks Boulevard and 3rd Street, fixing some of the potholes created by that brutal week of powerful storms. 

City of Burbank work crews were taking care of serious business during the past couple of weeks. They were on the job during and after the recent big storms cleaning up debris, removing downed trees, repairing streets, and solving other weather problems. One major repair job over on Victory Boulevard, between Magnola Boulevard and Olive Avenue, was apparently not really storm related.

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — A giant sinkhole developed at Victory Boulevard and Palm Avenue last weekend.

This past Monday, I drove over the bumpy temporary patch that Burbank city crews put down on top of that huge sinkhole, which split open on Saturday, January 23. The day after, Sunday, I talked with James Truong who is a cook at the Great Wok restaurant at the corner of Clark Avenue and Victory Boulevard. Truong saw a trickle of water turned quickly into a rushing stream along Victory Boulevard Saturday afternoon, when a 12-inch water main broke. Truong says “…the water came up to the back door” of the restaurant, prompting him to scramble outside and move his car to higher ground.

That section of Victory Boulevard, and some of the side streets like Orange Grove Avenue, Clark Avenue, and Palm Avenue were blocked off for a while. By Sunday afternoon, crews were finishing up the heavy duty street clean-up and preparing to restore full water service to the mostly business district.

Photo:  FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — A Burbank Water and Power crewman prepares to turn on the water.

BWP General Manager Ron Davis blamed the main break on “improper construction by an outside contractor,” according to a report on the Burbank Leader website Tuesday, January 26.

 Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Clean-up underway at Florin’s Auto Repair & Systems Tire, 225 North Victory Boulevard near West Palm Avenue, on Sunday, January 24.

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Clark Avenue, where it intersects with Victory Boulevard, was still blocked off with yellow tape last Sunday afternoon due to the flooding created by that water main break. By the end of the week, the clean-up was done and very few signs of the problem remained.

At the Burbank City Council meeting last Tuesday, January 26, city activist Mike Nolan, who can passionately and articulately dish out both criticism and praise, singled out the Burbank city crews for some well-deserved verbal high-fives. Later, city council members praised Burbank city crews for their hard work and dedication as well.