Preparations for stormy weather expected this week in SoCal

I could hear it. Drip, drip, drip. A leak in my attic during one of the recent December rains. Recent rains were a pain in the neck at my house and Beverly Hershey's. Her roof is being replaced.

"I'm glad we're getting the rain. I like rain," the North Hills homeowner said. "I'm fortunate it didn't rain a lot last year. This year when we had that little bit of rain and I had leaks, I decided I better do something about it."

David Payne, with Preferred Roofing in Van Nuys, is Hershey's roofer.

"In this particular case we're looking at broken tiles here along this wall and there's also a lot of debris that's damming up," Payne said.

Remember, that whole "it's gonna be the Godzilla of all El Nino's" thing. Turned out to be a bust, but it was a boom to Paine's business.

Now with talk of a large stream of moisture and the makings of a really rainy winter on the way, Paine said, "People are now starting to get worried, but the smart ones signed up a lot sooner before all this rain. Now, we're getting a lot people panicking and worried they're not going to get their roof up in time."

Others are very ready like the LA County Department of Public Works. Steven Frasher with LA County Public Works said, "LA County flood control structures are ready for any storm."

According to Frasher, all the work last year to prepare for El Nino has the county's flood control system in good shape, however, there are the Sand and Fish Fire areas that are of concern.

Take the Los Lomas debris basin over at Duarte near the Fish fire.

"That one debris basin that was affected by the New Year's weekend storm is being cleared this week so that it will be ready before whatever next weekend happens to throw our way."

Frasher adds, "They're letting the water seep out from that first. That will go to ground water replenishment and all the debris that's left behind will be scooped out in the coming days."

Back at Beverly Hershey's house, Payne says if you can't get a roofer quickly because they're so busy and have a problem you can always ask if they can properly throw a tarp up on your roof.

Even if you don't have problems with your roof, Paine said it's really important to keep one thing in mind: your roof should be checked every three to five years just to make sure you don't have a problem creep up like what surprised me a few weeks ago.

That... drip, drip... drip.

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