L.A. County remains dry, most of Southern California avoids Northern California storm system, and a cold front, high on the Sierra’s ridges, moves in from the coast earlier than forecast.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is expecting a small power outage and water quality problems along the 5th Street and Western Avenue service area in downtown Los Angeles around midnight.
By the end of Tuesday, the city could start to experience a “melt-down” of the electrical grid, according to LADWP officials.
The biggest problem for the city, besides the weather, is the storm sewer system. Officials expect a major surge in overflows from one of the storm drains that flows into the city’s main sewage system.
“During rain events, these overflow events will become more frequent and may result in some sewage overflows to the Los Angeles River,” officials stated.
In addition to the storm sewer system’s capacity problems, the flood of sewage will push aside the city’s sewage treatment plant and allow the discharge of storm water from the west side of the hills to the east side of the hills.
“This causes the sewage system to overflow into many other storm drains, some that were designed to handle much larger storm events, and also into the San Gabriel River, causing flooding,” officials stated.
The city will continue to monitor the storm water situation, with a view to determining how to prevent overflow into the river.
As for L.A.’s power supply, officials are taking proactive measures.
The City of L.A.’s power system is expected to remain fully operational for all but a very brief period, according to LADWP officials.
“We are expecting a little bit of a short-term outage in the neighborhood of the 5th Street and Western Avenue area,” officials noted.
“We are also expecting to experience some water quality degradation issues along the 5th and Western Avenue areas, with some of those likely being attributed to the runoff and heavy rains associated with an upcoming storm system on Monday,” officials stated.