Two separate water pipe failures flooded parts of Venice on Saturday, cutting service to more than 60 customers and pushing water into underground parking areas deep enough to submerge a car.
The first leak came from a private property, according to ABC7. The second was a few blocks from the Venice Canals, near Grand Boulevard.
The damage
The flooding reached below ground. A contractor working at one of the affected buildings described five to six feet of water standing in basement rooms, which is enough to destroy mechanical equipment, storage and any vehicle parked there.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said emergency repairs were underway and that it was handling the cleanup. No injuries were reported, and there has been no report of residents being displaced.
More than 60 customers lost water service. The utility has not published a restoration estimate.
The age question
The contractor on site, Ron Venveniste, offered the explanation that most Angelenos have heard before. "This is what happens when your infrastructure gets to be 110 years old," he said.
That is a contractor's estimate rather than a utility figure, and LADWP has not confirmed the age or size of either pipe. But the underlying claim is not controversial. Venice was developed in the early 1900s, and a substantial share of the city's water mains date from that era. LADWP has spent years replacing pipe on a rolling basis, constrained by cost and by the fact that a system this large cannot be rebuilt quickly.
The pattern has been visible elsewhere in the city this month. A separate failure in West Hollywood on July 16 involved a 36-inch riveted steel trunk line installed in 1916, a different incident in a different jurisdiction but the same underlying story.
Venveniste also said DWP crews arrived about two and a half hours after being notified. The utility has not responded to that characterization.
If your property was damaged
Residents and businesses with damage from a city water main failure can file a claim against the City of Los Angeles. Claims go to the City Clerk's office, and there are deadlines: for property damage the limit is generally one year from the incident, but filing early is better than filing late, and the process is easier with contemporaneous evidence.
Practical steps before anything is cleaned up: photograph and video everything, including water lines on walls and the contents of any flooded basement or garage; keep damaged items until an adjuster has seen them; write down the date and time you noticed the flooding and when crews arrived; and get repair estimates in writing.
The distinction that matters for a claim is whose pipe failed. Damage from a city main is a claim against the city. Damage from a pipe on private property is a matter for the property owner and their insurer, which is why the first of Saturday's two failures may be handled differently from the second. Anyone unsure which applies to them should ask LADWP to confirm the source of the leak in writing.
