West Hollywood faces long recovery from massive water main break: 'It was like whitewater rapids'

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Set us as preferred Tadeh Ghazalian, owner of Dialog Cafe, a family business of 20 years, is struggling in the wake of the water main break on Sunset Bouelvard.His entire store is completely closed, facing structural damage, food and product loss and a complete wipeout of their inventory.“The biggest thing is that there is so much water, there’s so much sand that went through this place,” Ghazalian said.

“It’s going to take a while before we get everything up and running again.”The rupture of a 3-foot-wide trunk line Thursday morning sent 17 million gallons of water into a West Hollywood neighborhood, from the Sunset Strip downhill beyond Santa Monica Boulevard.Officials are still trying to assess the damage but say those impacted face a long recovery.

California Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood will remain closed for an undetermined amount of time while crews repair pipe and the road itself after a major trunk line ruptured Thursday.West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman estimated that between 150 and 200 cars were damaged or destroyed in the flood.Officials are going door to door to tell residents how they can file claims with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to pay for water damage.A handful of residential units were inundated, including a few where electricity had to be shut off because their electrical panels were compromised.

Most of the damage was centered in underground garages where water had to be pumped out.Standing in a garage full of mud and wrecked cars on Friday, Joe Artle, who manages an apartment building on Palm Avenue and Cynthia Street, stared bewildered into the distance trying to figure out what to do next.Artle, 70, was trying to sleep when his neighbor and friend, Rudy Vargas, came banging on his door around 3 a.m.Thursday, panicked, urging him to get his car out of the underground ...