Flood watch continues for parts of SoCal as showers linger on Friday
Showers are expected to on Friday after off-and-on downpours drenched the Southland for the past couple days.
National Weather Service forecasters said there was still a good change of showers in the Los Angeles area early Friday morning, including some "higher intensity bursts of rain."
A flood watch for Los Angeles County will impact some areas until 12 p.m. and Orange County will be under a flood watch until Friday evening.
The five-day rain total as of 5 p.m. Thursday in Beverly Hills was 2.66 inches. In Bel Air and Culver City, it was 2.64 inches.
In Northridge, it was 4 inches. In Woodland Hills, it was 3.49 inches. At Morris Dam, it was 2.18 inches.
Early Thursday, Los Angeles County Public Works officials heightened the agency's mudflow warning level for recent burn areas, alerting residents that debris flows are possible. The heightened alert affected recent burn areas in the Topanga Canyon, Agua Dulce, La Tuna Canyon and Duarte areas.
By mid-afternoon, however, the agency dropped all of its mudflow alerts, indicating the threat of such flooding had diminished.
Duarte city officials initiated a "yellow alert" status in the Fish Fire burn area at 4 p.m. Thursday, continuing until 8 a.m. Friday. The alert affects roughly 25 homes along Mel Canyon Road between Brookridge and Fish Canyon roads. Parking restrictions will be in place along that stretch, as well as on Deerlane Drive between Mel Canyon Road and Greenbank Avenue.
Residents in the affected Duarte area were also instructed to remove all trash bins from the street, and place them on their driveways closer to their homes, where they will be picked up manually at the 25 homes in the alert area.
In the Topanga Canyon area, an evacuation warning was issued for roughly 20 homes along Santa Maria Road north of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
Los Angeles County Lifeguards warned people to exercise caution if they visit the beach. "Ocean conditions will also have a bit more activity with waves in the head to overhead range," lifeguards warned on social media.
County health officials also issued a warning for people to avoid entering the ocean water in the days following rain, noting that runoff can carry bacteria and debris into the water, raising the risk of illness.
Public Works officials said Thursday afternoon that roughly 717 million gallons of stormwater had been captured by the agency's retention systems this week. Since Oct. 1, roughly 5 billion gallons of stormwater had been captured, enough to meet the needs of 121,600 people, public works officials said.
