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# Car swallowed by major sinkhole
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/car-swallowed-by-major-sinkhole/
- Published: 2007-09-11T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:49:49.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Community, Sunset Park, #archive-import

*Failed water main breaks Euclid Street wide open*

SUNSET PARK Glen Walsh awoke early Saturday morning to the serene sound of a flowing river.

Strangely, Walsh wasn’t staying in a log cabin in the wilderness. Instead, a river was running along Euclid Street.

The residents of this Sunset Park neighborhood got a free show with their morning coffee on Saturday, gathering around a gaping hole on Euclid Street, watching as a parked car slowly sank into the Earth.

A water main underneath Euclid Street — immediately south of Ocean Park Boulevard — broke shortly before 7 a.m., washing away most of the sand used as backfill, taking away with it the support for the pavement, said Gil Borboa, the water resources manager for City Hall.

What was left was a sinkhole and an unwanted underground parking spot for one unlucky resident.

City crew expect to work through the end of this week to repair the damage, which left dozens of residents without water pressure for part of Saturday and no vehicular access to their homes since the weekend.

The broken main caused water to gush onto the street, a messy combination of liquid and sand sloshing down Euclid Street onto Oak Street.

“We realized we were in a big sand box,” said George Solomon, who lives right in front of the sinkhole.

Solomon woke up to the chatter of neighbors in front of his home, jumping in the shower and realizing there was very little water pressure.

Solomon and his wife, Annie, looked out the window to see a car hanging at an angle over the hole, slowing surrendering.

“When it went down, I could not see the roof of the car,” he said.

The car was pulled out and towed from the scene. There was no information available on Monday as to the fate of the vehicle and the owner was not available for comment.

Euclid Street from Ocean Park Boulevard to Oak Street was still closed off to vehicular traffic on Monday.

The incident was eerily similar to one in December 2002 when an aging water main opened up Ocean Park Boulevard for roughly 300 yards. The main burst beneath Ocean Park Boulevard at the Euclid Street intersection, putting residents on edge as to whether another sinkhole could strike again.

“It looked like the Grand Canyon swallowed Ocean Park,” said Walsh, who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. The stretch of Ocean Park Boulevard from 11th to 14th streets remained closed for several months as utility lines were repaired.

“We do as much maintenance as we can,” Borboa said. “The reality is there are buried pipelines and... the majority of buried pipelines do serve their entire life and not have a problem.”

“Occasionally, there is a rupture and unfortunately in this case, it led to a sinkhole being created,” he added.

The sinkhole was the talk of the neighborhood for days.

Denise Vallarta, who lives around the corner on Oak Street, walked to her car on Euclid Street on Saturday only to find the street had been barricaded.

She opted to walk to work. “I usually park my car on the street,” Vallarta said regarding whether she had any reservations on parking her car on Euclid in the future. “I checked my insurance and I’m good.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/091107-10_01.jpg)

DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR? (Photo: Photo courtesy Vicki Hanson)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 11, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091107.pdf?ref=smdp.com)