The Southland saw record rainfall Saturday, leading to flooded streets and emergencies ranging from the rescue of a woman hanging onto a tree in a Laguna Hills creek to multiple cars being crushed by a fallen tree in a Woodland Hills parking lot.
Downtown Los Angeles received 1.82 inches of rain Saturday, breaking the old record of 1.56 inches set in 1978. At LAX, a record 1.53 inches fell Saturday, breaking the old record of 1.51 inches, also from 1978 and 1.72 inches fell at Long Beach Airport, surpassing the 1.48 inches from 1978, according to the National Weather Service.
The rain began falling over Los Angeles County late Saturday morning, with the brunt of the system hitting in the late afternoon or evening.
The precipitation tapered off Saturday night, and the area was expected to get a break from the rain until late afternoon Sunday, when another less-powerful storm moved in. That system is expected to linger over the area into Monday’s national holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with the bulk of that day’s rain expected in the morning.
Flooding was reported in the Long Beach Peninsula community at about 2 p.m. Saturday, affecting residences along 67th Place. A little farther to the northwest, all lanes of the Long Beach (710) Freeway were flooded between Anaheim and Willow streets.
