Mudslide damages home, cars in Echo Park neighborhood

ECHO PARK, Calif. (FOX 11) - A massive cleanup project is underway in Echo Park after a mudslide took out a wall and staircase of an apartment complex and damaged cars.

Echo Park residents on Douglas Street woke up to the sounds of a mudslide early Thursday morning.

"This whole section of wall just buckled under the rain and the rain brought it down onto my car," said Jason Gudasz.

Thousands of pounds of dirt took out a wall of an apartment complex sending concrete and debris into the street.

Jason's green Subaru, which was parked below the building, was totaled, but it doesn't look nearly as bad as another neighbor's burgundy sedan that had its windshield crushed under concrete.

"Someone could have been in that car like there's people who just hang out in their cars," said Jacqueline, a neighbor.

Jacqueline lives in the building adjacent to the apartment complex that's now been red tagged.

An image from Google maps shows what the wall looked like before it collapsed.

Jacqueline said her mom previously told the city her concerns regarding about the stability of the hillside.

"My mom had reported it already twice and they didn't do anything about it," she said.

After the slide neighbors said they smelled gas.

"It turns out it was the gas line and everyone was stepping back because nobody wants to get blown up by it," Gudasz said.

The gas company reportedly plugged the leak.

Neighbors will now deal with the cleanup from the storm that caused a mess on their street, but for Jason, he isn't blaming anything or anyone but himself.

"I knew that thing would buckle at some point," he said. "I'm the idiot that parked under the thing so it's also my fault."