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Ruptured water main unleashes 20-foot-tall geyser, stranding motorists and sending water surging down the stairs

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Water gushes into the air after a water main on Los Angeles’s Sunset Boulevard burst around 3:30 p.m. on July 29, 2014. By 6 p.m., the geyser had mostly subsided.NBC4LA.COM/The Associated Press

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Workers walk down stairs to a parking structure as water cascades down on them on the UCLA campus. The flood surged across the school's athletic facilities, including the famed floor of Pauley Pavilion, the neighbouring Wooden Center and the Los Angeles Tennis Center, and a pair of parking structures that took the brunt of the damage.MIKE MEADOWS/The Associated Press

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Firefighters work near an open drain on the UCLA campus. The burst pipe that flooded the campus is estimated to be more than 90 years old, and carries 750,000 gallons per minute, the city’s Department of Water and Power says.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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Workers use brooms to sweep water away on the UCLA campus. The city’s Department of Water and Power said as much as eight to 10 million gallons was lost in the eruption of water.JONATHAN ALCORN/Reuters

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Water shoots in the air from the broken water main.MIKE MEADOWS/The Associated Press

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Los Angeles firefighters help drivers whose cars became stranded on Sunset Boulevard.STEVE GENTRY/The Associated Press

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One woman pulls another on a body board through the flooded UCLA quad. The deluge happened as California suffers a record drought, in which local authorities have levied fines and restrictions for wasted water.MIKE MEADOWS/The Associated Press

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A worker begins the task of cleaning up at least an inch of water covering the playing floor at Pauley Pavilion, home of UCLA basketball, which underwent multimillion-dollar renovations in 2012.MIKE MEADOWS/The Associated Press

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Firefighters work to dam up a stairway inside the Pauley Pavilion sporting arena.DANNY MOLOSHOK/Reuters

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A man poses for a photo on stairs to a parking structure outside the Pauley Pavilion.DANNY MOLOSHOK/Reuters

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A man and woman embrace at an entrance to an underground parking structure outside the Pauley Pavilion.DANNY MOLOSHOK/Reuters

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