The main water line that erupted in Studio City over the weekend is right in front of the cream-colored house Ann Nicholas shares with her family. She owns a small business in the neighborhood and was on a business trip when gushing water shot right towards her home. A frantic phone call from her husband is how Ann Nicholas found out about what was going on.
Patricia Nazario speaks live with a victim.
L.A. County firefighters helping one of their own. (Photo by Patricia Nazario)
“He wasn’t for sure at the time what was going on. I heard my kids in the background screaming. My son, my four-year-old was crying,” says Nicholas, “I was in total chaos! He hung up on me! I tried calling him back. It was very terrifying… (crying) I was away from my family and I just saw it on the news and when I saw it, I felt so helpless; I wanted to come, but I couldn’t, because everything was all blocked. I thought my whole family was gonna be swept away by the water. It was just terrible.”
“How high up was the gush? How strong was the water?” asked Nazario.
“I was viewing it from television. It looked like it was 7, 8 feet high, maybe taller,” says Nicholas. “I just kept seeing this wall of water coming toward them, coming toward the house. I’m looking for belongings. I’m looking at my kids’ pictures, their photographs, a lot of memories that are just gone that I’ll never have back. I’ll never get those years back… (crying).”
“Did you guys live here when this happened 16 years ago?” asked Nazario.
“This happened before?” exclaimed Nicholas.
“You didn’t know?” asked Nazario.
“No,” replied Nicholas. “We’ve been here like eight years.”
“Did they talk about any of this when you bought this house?” asked Nazario.
“No, this was never ever mentioned. I had no idea that we had something so dangerous that was real close to our property line,” said Nicholas. “I mean, my main door, right there. There’s still sandbags there. I mean, thank God my family’s okay, but God forbid, it should NOT have happened. You can’t do that. You don’t take a risk like that. Human life, you don’t do that. It should have not happened. This was not supposed to happen. The city should have been more responsible. This was not supposed to happen, because what if, God forbid, I would’ve been here standing able to talk to you? This foundation and everything would have been taken away? What do you say then? Sorry? Or, we were gonna get to it? No.”
