Owners Told They Can Pick Up Flood-Damaged Cars

At least 340 vehicles damaged by last week’s massive flood on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles are available for pickup by their owners.

The school has arranged to have insurance adjusters on site Tuesday to help with damage assessments, UCLA spokesman Tod Tamberg said. Cars can be picked up until Thursday.

These are the last of nearly 1,000 cars that were parked in two structures inundated July 29 when a main pipe broke, spewing some 20 million gallons of water. The lower garage levels were submerged to the ceiling.

About 600 undamaged cars had already been towed out.

In addition to the two parking structures, water from the rupture flooded several other campus buildings, including Pauley Pavilion, the school’s storied basketball arena.

Both UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and the mayor’s office have said the arena will be ready for the university’s men’s and women’s basketball seasons.

The cause of the water main break, which occurred at the juncture of two trunk lines running underneath Sunset Boulevard, was under investigation. But Joe Ramallo, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told the Los Angeles Times that corrosion was suspected.

Sunset Boulevard reopened early Monday when crews finished repaving the stretch adjacent to the campus where the rupture occurred.