StorQuest Self Storage announced this week that it will provide two free months of self storage to victims of the mudslides in three Los Angeles County communities: La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, and Tujunga Canyon. Mudslides damaged at least 41 homes over the weekend. At least nine homes were deemed uninhabitable, while six others were flooded with mud and debris. About 25 vehicles were also damaged, and streets were rendered impassable.
As the area recovers from the mudslides, residents have begun to criticize Los Angeles County officials for not putting out a reverse 911 call to area homes, as they did in October when residents were evacuated to protect them from the threat of mudslides when rainstorms began after the Station Fire, which burned 250 square miles of the Angeles National Forest. That fire, which began in August and burned for several weeks, was the largest in L.A. County history. When the rainstorms began, county officials feared that the burned hillsides would give way. The hills were very steep and the area just below them included many roads and houses. County roads in the area were closed for two days due to the potential for mudslides, and residents of the area were asked to evacuate. The U.S. Forest Service also moved its firefighting equipment out of mountain fire stations into the foothills as a precaution. But officials said that this time, the storms came on too suddenly, and that by the time they were aware of the danger, it would have been unsafe to start an evacuation procedure.
"We would have killed people," explained Mike Metro, Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief. He said that the mudslides "were picking up cars and setting them down-street 300 yards. You never want to evacuate when those kinds of things are happening."
Eventually, about 540 homes at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains were evacuated, but the evacuation took place after the mudslides had filled many houses with mud and rocks, so residents were not able to salvage as many of their possessions as they had taken with them in October. Most residents were able to return home on Sunday, but some homes were unsafe to enter. while other homes could be entered for salvage purposes but were not livable. "In my 20 years of fire service, this is the first time I've seen this much devastation caused by a weather system," said Mike Brown, Los Angeles County Fire Battalion Chief. At the time, he was walking past residents who were thigh-high in mud.
StorQuest assisted mudslide victims after the October evacuations as well, offering a free month of storage to evacuees from Sunland and Tujunga Canyon. Storquest also had its company moving trucks stationed at the mandatory mudslide evacuation site in Tujunga Canyon and provided labor power to help evacuees with their moves.
At the time, Tujunga Canyon resident Brownwen Aker was one of those who took her belongings and left the area. She packed up her furniture and anything that was irreplaceable and put it in storage. "Come springtime," Aker said, "my house may be completely underneath rocks and boulders and will be unrecoverable, at which point I just have to turn and walk away....As much as it pains me to let go of such a beautiful place, at the same time, we never really own anything. We're only custodians for a time."
Most California homeowner's insurance policies do not cover flood damage.