Heavy rainfall has caused severe flooding in the San Fernando Valley, leading to the Sepulveda Basin to be shut down to all pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
The Los Angeles City Emergency Management Department first announced the closure late Monday morning.
“You know it, [you] probably don’t love it, but can expect it with each storm,” emergency management officials said on X, formerly Twitter.
Those looking to pass through the basin area are asked to avoid Burbank Boulevard between Balboa Boulevard and the 405 Freeway and Woodley Avenue from Victory Boulevard to Burbank.
Parking Enforcement vehicles and Los Angeles Police Department units were seen blocking both sides of the closure Tuesday morning to prevent any motorists from driving through by mistake.
Video posted to social media by UnifiedLA shows the Los Angeles River – which flows right through the Sepulveda Basin – with a high water level and a “very strong flow.”
Homeless outreach services confirmed to KTLA that workers are offering resources to unhoused individuals who may be camped out in the Sepulveda Basin; the intense storms at the beginning of February dropped feet of rain on the flood-prone area and required several people to be rescued by swift water rescue teams.
And with the recent storms hitting SoCal, officials are once again warning residents to stay away from not only the basin but all floodwaters in general.
“This water can be very deceiving…even if it doesn’t look like it’s moving, it can be moving underneath the surface,” Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Adam Knabe told KTLA earlier this month. “You don’t know what lies underneath the surface, so [when it comes to] standing water and running water, just stay away from it.”
A timetable for the Sepulveda Basin to reopen has not been established.