Studio City Water Main Floods Businesses, Residences
Many retailers in Los Angeles’ Studio City neighborhood will be closed for repairs after a 62-inch water main burst near the intersection of Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Dickens Street, flooding the surrounding streets in water.
The water main burst at 10:40 p.m. on Sept. 5 and shut down traffic on Coldwater Canyon Avenue, a main thoroughfare between Studio City and Beverly Hills.
Alison Rubke, co-owner of the high-end lingerie shop Faire Frou Frou, located on neighboring Ventura Boulevard, received a phone call from a friend at 1 a.m. on Sunday morning that her store was flooded. That was followed by a 5 a.m. call from the fire department about the situation.
Rubke has yet to catalogue the cost of the damage to the floor, fixtures, furniture and merchandise from the six inches of water that crept into every crevice.
“We had baskets on the ground with extra inventory or long nightgowns that were close to the floor; those were ruined,” said Rubke, who will be closed for up to three weeks as clean-up crews empty out the store to repair the building’s structural water damage.
Located a few doors down from Faire Frou Frou on Ventura Boulevard, Stacey Todd’s eponymous high-end women’s clothing and home store was flooded with about two feet of water that damaged walls, wood floors, rugs and “a lot of merchandise.”
Todd said she will be closed for “about a month or two” as the clean-up crews repair the damage, but she remains hopeful. “We’re just forging ahead,” said Todd, who plans to restock during the upcoming market week in New York.
“It will be nice and new and fresh and clean, a lot of new merchandise,” Todd said. “We’re having a positive outlook even though it’s very tiring and upsetting right now.”
Other clothing shops in the surrounding area that were affected include Veronica M. and Canyon Beachwear—both of which have multiple store locations—and Little Stinker children’s clothes.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Web site includes information about filing residential and commercial claims. For more information, visit www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp006572.jsp.
Rubke said that even though the store’s and landlord’s insurance will cover the loss of property, it’s difficult to quantify and file a claim for sales lost during the time that the store will be closed. “What the DWP needs to be responsible for is the loss of business for months when we close,” she said. “When we reopen, there’s not necessarily those customers waiting at our front door. We’ll have lost customers who say, ’I need this item’ and they go to another store.”—Rhea Cortado
