Heavyweight Rain Lacked Big Punch

This week’s rainstorm was the heavyweight champion of the winter -- so far -- but it clearly pulled its punches en route to the title.

Public agencies reported relatively few disruptions in the wake of the rain, which totaled 1.99 inches in downtown Los Angeles, a single-day-record 2.06 inches in Burbank, and 2.75 inches in Chatsworth.

Late Tuesday, Department of Water and Power crews were working to restore electricity to 2,100 customers in Atwater Village and Echo Park, where a single circuit was knocked out when high winds and falling tree branches downed power lines, said DWP spokeswoman Kim Hughes. An additional 400 customers were experiencing flickering lights in downtown and central Los Angeles and in Westlake. Hughes said all power was expected to be restored Tuesday night.

Hughes said as many as 12,000 DWP customers experienced power failures, beginning about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. The majority had power back within three hours.

Compared with a January storm that knocked out electricity to more customers, “this wasn’t too bad at all,” she said.

In Azusa, an undetermined number of residents experienced an hour of lower water pressure about 7 a.m. Tuesday after a 12-inch backup line broke. The line split open when a saturated hillside slid from beneath it, carrying part of the Northrop Grumman plant’s parking lot into an adjacent quarry. No one was injured.

National Weather Service specialist Stuart Seto said the storm brought total rainfall downtown since July 1 to 7.32 inches, about 3.5 inches below normal.

“So we’re catching up,” he said. “A couple more of these storms, and we’ll be up there.”

Last winter, the second-wettest recorded, saw nearly 34 inches of rain by February’s end.

The Los Angeles area is in for a few jabs from a couple of featherweight storms over the next five days, Seto said. There is a 20% chance of showers Thursday, and a 50% chance Thursday night and Friday, before skies clear Friday night. More rain is expected Monday and Tuesday.

Neither storm is expected to bring more than half an inch of rain, Seto said.