Valleyheart Drive Reopens After Night of Flooding

When the sun came up this morning at the intersection of Valleyheart Drive and Colbath Avenue in Sherman Oaks, water was gone from the corner after a night of flooding.

A 10-foot-square area of the intersection was coned off, but traffic was flowing smoothly.

Just after 7 p.m. Sunday, a pipe under the street apparently burst, sending water gushing up to the surface. Emergency crews from the Department of Water and Power sealed off the intersection as the water began rising from the gutter onto the sidewalk.

"What the hell happened?" asked resident Victor McGrath after parking his car a block away and making his way down the wet pavement.

"The system is old; one of the pipes probably broke," said Steve Arriola, the DWP supervisor on the scene.

Residents of the flooded streets said they were surprised by the break because DWP crews have been working in the area for several weeks.

Arriola said crews have been trying to upgrade the system. "This is happening in many places because there's a lot of work that needs to be done on the old system," Arriola said.

"We'll be working all night to stop the flooding and hope to have Valleyheart open by morning," he added.

This morning, Valleyheart was busy with motorists taking a short cut through Sherman Oaks.