Riding Out the Deluge : Storms: The January downpours have brought a few mudslides, lots of leaky roofs and too many potholes to count.

While local officials clean up what’s left of the many leaks and mudslides from January’s rainstorms, the most widespread damage will have to be endured for at least a few more weeks: potholes.

“Everyone’s going to have to keep their eyes open for a while until we get the holes filled,” said Curtis Bianchi of the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Maintenance. “We have resurfaced hundreds of miles of major streets over the past 10 years and they’ve held up pretty well, but a lot of the potholes and popouts are on the 4,000 miles of residential streets--and the reason for that is because we have so many more miles of those streets and they have a thinner coat of asphalt.”

Bianchi said the city has 25 two-person crews budgeted for pothole duty, but at this point other road crews are helping out. Public-works officials are holding back on a full-scale repair effort until spring, he said. “We’re not scheduling anyone for overtime hours at this point. Our wettest weather is generally in early February, so it’s wait and watch.”

One of the wettest Januarys in city history has sent retaining walls crashing into vehicles and damaging homes, put a damper on the soon-to-be-opened Red Line subway and disrupted classes in new buildings on at least three Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

In Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights, where older homes were built on steep hills, residents are taking down tarps loaned to them from the city Fire Department to keep water from seeping into their already soaked lawns.

Some of the homes have suffered damage from earthquakes in the past, causing cracks in the foundations and walls that allowed water to seep inside.

Mud oozed down a grassy hill early Monday morning in Boyle Heights, breaking through a brick wall on North Stone Street and pushing a parked van against Alfonso Castaneda’s house. “We were asleep and we heard a loud sound, like an explosion,” he said. “When we saw what happened, we hurried and packed what we could and went to my brother’s house nearby.”

Castaneda and his wife, Ana, returned home Wednesday with their belongings. Except for a back corner wall where the van hit, the house seemed to be in good shape, he said.

Yellow police tape cautioned visitors not to cross onto the property and a sign from the city Department of Building and Safety said the house was “off limits to unauthorized personnel.” Castaneda said he was waiting on city inspectors to check out the structure and allow them to take down the signs.

A front wall to a yard on Pomeroy Street buckled several years ago during an earthquake, said Boyle Heights resident Amanda Rodrigo. That temblor also caused cracks along an outside staircase that leads to another apartment. During the storms, her bathroom was flooded when water came through the cracks.

“My grandmother tried to get help because of the earthquake damage, but she was turned down (for a loan),” she said. “But the cracks weren’t from the rain. They’ve already been there.”

Near downtown, part of a hill at 5th Street and Union Avenue washed away, causing a retaining wall to collapse. “At about 3 a.m. I heard a cracking noise and when I looked out the window I saw that the wall had smashed a car,” said John Mills, who lives in the neighborhood. Part of the area has been closed off since a 1968 storm damaged a walkway there, Mill said.

Several small puddles dotted the Red Line platform of the station at 7th and Flower streets, but Metro staffers said the leaking was much worse at Union Station.

“With the heavy rains, we’re seeing some leaks we haven’t seen before,” said Bart Kane, director of operations, maintenance and start-up. “(But) with all the plastic sheeting hanging up to prevent splatters, it looks a lot worse than it actually is.”

The Red Line tunnel was lined with a protective membrane during construction to keep water and methane gas out, but the subway has been plagued with leaks. Maintenance crews have been plugging holes with a $120-a-gallon sealant, but Kane said “the water’s just going to find someplace to go.”

The 4.4-mile Union Station-to-MacArthur Park subway system is still scheduled to open Saturday.

Meanwhile, school district officials have repeatedly attempted to seal leaks at South Gate and Bell high schools and San Miguel Avenue Elementary School during the last few years, but they have been somewhat less than successful.

“It’s something that, with a new building, is unexpected,” said Raul Moreno, principal of South Gate High, where a $3.4-million, two-story math-and-science building built in 1990 is leaking.

At South Gate, there are “morale problems with staff and students when they can’t get into their rooms or have to pack up and move” because of water in the classrooms, Moreno said. “It’s an annoyance.”

In an effort to plug the leaks at South Gate, the district has replaced windows throughout the building and inspected vents, drains and the air-conditioning system, but without success, Moreno said. Now, the building’s floor is buckling from the moisture.

On the Bell High School campus, a science building completed less than five years ago has been “leaking since it was finished,” said Tony Solorzano, assistant principal.

San Miguel’s $7 million, six-building campus has leaked since the school opened in October, 1989, said principal George Garcia. Officials have identified 32 trouble spots.

“Right now my office is leaking and I have two puddles,” Garcia said. During the last heavy rain, four classrooms were moved into a multipurpose room while janitors mopped up. Unfortunately, he said, parts of that room leak too.

Doug Brown, the district’s deputy business manager, said it is unclear whether the leaks are from faulty construction or poor design, but he added that most new buildings have problems that don’t surface until the first big rain.

In any case, construction comes with only a one-year warranty. “If we approved a bad design because it slipped through our review process, we’ll have to pay for it,” Brown said.

But Los Angeles Unified School District board president Leticia Quezada said the buildings’ architects or contractors should be held responsible. “Obviously, we don’t have the money to build new buildings and have them be faulty buildings,” she said.

Recreation buildings at two Commerce parks sprung leaks and were closed temporarily, said Augie Barragan, maintenance supervisor in the city Public Services Department. Officials have not estimated the damage.

Veterans Memorial Park was forced to close one of two basketball courts inside its gym for four days because of leaks. And the Bristow Park recreation building, which houses the city library and space for classes, was closed for six days.

The city distributed about 400 sandbags to about 20 homeowners to stop flooding, Barragan said. He was unable to say how much damaged was caused.

Municipal buildings and homes in Maywood were luckier, suffering little or no damage, said Ed Ahrens, the city’s assistant chief administrative officer. “We haven’t heard of anything that you wouldn’t expect with the storm,” Ahrens said. “A lot of potholes. But as far as major damage, I haven’t heard (anything) at all.”

Los Angeles County Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn has urged the owners of storm-damaged properties to contact his office for information and applications to get their homes or businesses reappraised. “By law, property qualifies for tax relief if the total loss in value due to water or mud damage is $5,000 or more,” he said.

Hahn said reassessment could mean a tax refund for the remainder of this fiscal year and a possible tax reduction for next year, or until the property is rebuilt or repaired.

State law requires property owners to file tax-relief applications with the Assessor’s Department within 60 days of the damage, Hahn said. Photographs and documentation detailing the extent of damage should be included with the application, he said.

Applications are available at 500 W. Temple St., Room 225, or by calling (231) 974-3211.

* Contributing to this report were Mary Helen Berg, Jake Doherty, Duke Helfand, Mary Anne Perez and Jim Walters.