Damaged Pipelines, Los Angeles

Photograph from the EERI
(Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, California)

The earthquake caused large ground movements along Balboa Boulevard, a residential street. These movements damaged buried pipelines carrying gas and water. The leaking gas caused fires which burnt down homes and the leaking water caused a flood "like a river" along the street. Fire and water could be seen together at the same time.

These pictures show how the ground movements caused paving slabs to pop-up, as they were pushed together, and the road to crack, as it was pulled apart.

The road had to be dug up afterwards in quite a few places to repair the damaged pipes. (See Detail)