A West Hollywood man was woken by a spine-chilling reality early Thursday morning — a river of water crashing down the street, straight toward his apartment.
Kyle MacLelland, 37, who was asleep with his boyfriend at the time, said the water from the area’s recent dramatic water main break, which poured thousands of gallons of water over West Hollywood, spurred the couple into action.
“We jumped out of bed and saw a crazy river coming down the street, shooting towards our apartment,” he told The California Post. “We tried to stop the water coming in because we saw it [rising outside] the door.”
But water quickly lined the floors of his two-bedroom apartment, making their effort “futile,” he said. The flood had bounded down the street from nearby Dialog Cafe, which sustained damage, to his ground-level home.
“Water was spraying everywhere,” he said. “There was no stopping it. There was nothing we could do.”
The pair began stuffing what they could under their balcony door to soak up the water, but it wasn’t enough.
MacLelland, who works for the Tennis Channel, shared a video of the water soaking a rug, cushions, and other items in his apartment. In more shared footage, the devastating flood waters are seen streaming outside of his apartment.
As the water streamed into his apartment, his two cars in the apartment’s parking garage began to take on water. He says both cars were “lost” in the floods, underscoring the devastating damage to local residents enduring the main break from a century-old pipe.
“We lost both our cars in the underground car park,” he said. “They’re submerged in water.”
He was among many West Hollywood residents who endured catastrophic damage from Thursday’s water main break, which poured water down Palm Ave around 3 a.m. from the ancient pipes.
It also created a massive sinkhole at Sunset Boulevard and Holloway Drive, shutting down the area as crews worked to repair it.
West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman said at a press conference that “all of our residents, to our knowledge, are safe.”
“Obviously a lot of people are still in a state of shock,” he told The California Post. “They have had water damage to their sub-garages. Their cars have been significantly damaged. We also have a couple of units that have been impacted. Right now, people are just trying to assess the damage, get people out to help them with the repairs and the remediation.”
Residents have blamed aging infrastructure for the unfortunate flood.
MacLelland wishes the disastrous deluge could have been avoided.
“It was not a good situation to wake up to.”
