Four Rescued From Flash Flood in River

Four terrified workers were rescued Monday from the rain-swollen Los Angeles River after a powerful surge of storm runoff dislodged a half-dozen construction vehicles at work sites in the riverbed near downtown, officials said.

Two men were plucked by helicopter from the raging gray waters after their cement truck had been carried nearly half a mile, finally coming to rest against a concrete abutment supporting the Santa Monica Freeway.

In another scene, two workers clinging to concrete girders beneath another bridge were helped to safety by ladder-toting Los Angeles City Fire Department rescuers. The men had been working on a type of crane known as a zoom boom, which apparently was washed away by the rushing waters, authorities said.

No one was injured in either rescue but workers were faced with the prospect late Monday of retrieving the vehicles from the river.

The sequence of mishaps began shortly before 2 p.m. as a surge of storm water surprised a paving crew from Associated Ready Mix. The crew was pouring concrete along the floor of the riverbed beneath Cesar Chavez Avenue, just east of downtown Los Angeles.

The four-foot-high wall of water came quickly, sweeping two large cement trucks, a sport utility vehicle and a stake bed truck downstream.

Mark Zarbis was standing by his concrete pumper toward one side of the river when the water came rushing toward him.

“I jumped on the pumper, but the pumper started sliding and was getting washed away,” said Zarbis, 21, of Lake Elsinore. “So I climbed on top of the concrete truck.”

The driver, Jose Nunez, soon joined him atop the truck. But the truck was washed into the middle of the river by the rushing water.

They stood on the metal ladder on the side of the truck and held onto the rungs, said Zarbis, who recounted the tale as he sat, shivering, in the contractor’s trailer near downtown. He was soaked and attempting to find a ride home because his truck was washed downstream.

“We were both clinging to the top of the truck, yelling into a two-way radio: ‘Call 911! Call 911!’ We were ready to jump at any time, in case the truck flipped,” Zarbis said.

“The truck was rushing down the river at maybe 30 mph. And we were holding on to that truck for about 20 minutes. It seemed like forever. The water was about halfway up the truck and getting closer. The other guy said he had a wife and kids and was afraid he was going to die.”

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Nunez said the water was so strong it picked up his loaded cement truck. “It was very scary. The water started moving so fast. I had probably three or four yards of concrete [in the truck] and it was picked up very fast,” he said.

Meanwhile, more than 100 firefighters, many part of the multi-agency Swift Water Rescue Team, stationed themselves at strategic locations along the river, from downtown Los Angeles to the port, a distance of about 25 miles.

Workers also ran along the east bank of the river, throwing ropes to the men, to no avail.

At one point, the cement mixer hit a bridge column, jolting the pair. But they held on tight. Finally, the truck stopped near a bridge and Zarbis spotted the Sheriff’s Department helicopter.

Members of an elite team from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department--the Emergency Services Detail Rescue Helicopter Five--hovered close over several power lines as scores of onlookers watched in awe from along the 7th Street bridge.

Members said that luckily they were stationed in East Los Angeles for the day and arrived on the scene within minutes.

With news helicopters hovering above, pilot Larry Stewart eased the craft lower as paramedic Rick Hernandez dangled about 40 feet from a cable with a rescue horse collar. Nunez reached skyward.

“He wanted off real fast,” said crew chief Harry Jones. “If they would have gotten into that water, they’d have been in real trouble.

Hernandez swooped in low. “I told the guy to stay there, but he reached for me, grabbed at me, sort of pinned my arms,” he recalled. “I guess he was pretty scared. But I kept yelling at him to let go and he finally did. I got the collar on him.”

Moments later, Zarbis was out of the water. “He was kind of dazed but he figured out the procedure,” Hernandez said.

A relieved Zarbis said: “Boy, were we happy to see that helicopter. I let the other guy go first because he had kids. Then they pulled me out. One of the deputies asked me if I was OK. Then he shook my hand and said, ‘Congratulations. You made it.’ ”

Both men were set down on railroad tracks running along the west side of the riverbed as onlookers gawked from overpasses and from truck loading depots.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, only in the movies,” said Nancy Silbert, an accountant for a nearby trucking company. “That guy was a spectacular pilot.”

But rescuers were nonplused.

“It was pretty routine,” Jones said. “We’ve been doing this kind of thing for 25 years.”

In the second rescue, firefighters used ladders to form a makeshift bridge to reach two unidentified workers from underneath the Santa Monica Freeway bridge span. A third worker escaped on his own.

After the rescues, workers on another bridge wondered why the men rescued by the helicopter were in the riverbed in the first place.

“It was crazy to go down there on a day like this,” said construction worker Bert Garcia. “No way in hell would you have caught me there.”

Times staff writers Eric Malnic and George Ramos contributed to this story.