Two flooding incidents were reported in Venice Saturday, sending large amounts of water into residential streets in that seaside community in a scene uncomfortably close to the disaster that unfolded in West Hollywood two days earlier.
A water pipe rupture was reported at about 8 a.m. Saturday in the Venice Canals area and involved a pipe owned by a landlord and not the city, officials said.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power told City News Service that DWP crews investigated the rupture, but “it turned out to be a property leak. The customer requested to leave service off for now.”
At about 12:25 p.m., flooding was reported in the 200 block of Grand Boulevard between Main Street and Riviera Avenue, a few blocks away from the Venice Canals, according to spokesman Jamie Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Stewart said the flooding was caused by a water main break in an alley. The LAFD was on the scene about 10 minutes before the Department of Water and Power took over, he said.
Photos from the scene showed a significant amount of water flooding the alley.
Venice resident Mark Ryavec told CNS that he spoke with a deputy to City Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the council district. The deputy would neither confirm nor deny the second water main was city-owned. Ryavec said the water had been shut off and was no longer flowing.
The Venice incidents were far less severe than Thursday’s major flood in West Hollywood, where some 17 million gallons of water flowed into the streets after a 110-year-old section of pipe broke, but they were still unnerving for residents.
“I woke up to the sound of spraying. I saw water spewing into the sky above my apartment building,” Venice Canals resident Raleigh Tomlinson told The California Post. “… It filled up the entire street for about a block with deep water.”
It was not immediately clear whether the incidents were related.