LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE -- An overnight storm triggered mudslides and evacuations in the Los Angeles County foothills and burn areas, but no deaths or major injuries were reported, and most evacuations were lifted Saturday night.   

"Based upon continued evaluation of the weather, the flood control systems and roadway access of the foothill communities, the incident commanders have lifted the mandatory evacuations for all of La Crescenta and Acton,'' the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works announced in a statement issued at 8:30 p.m.

Mandatory evacuation orders were also lifted for La Canada Flintridge with the exception of Paradise Valley. Evacuations still in place there include: Ocean View Boulevard from 5524 north; Earnslow Drive; Bristow Drive; Derwood Drive; Manistee Drive; and Highrim Road.   

The storm and resulting debris flows left 12 homes with major damage and 31 with light to moderate damage, county Supervisor Mike Antonovich said during a late afternoon news conference.   

About 25 vehicles were damaged, he added.   

"This storm has severely impacted the foothills in Antelope Valley and Acton, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Sierra Madre ... Altadena,'' the supervisor said.   

Some of the worst damage occurred in La Canada Flintridge, in the foothills near the burn area of last summer's massive Station wildfire, where a hillside gave way above Manistee Drive, a cul-de-sac off Ocean View Boulevard, about 5 a.m. Mud cascaded into homes, piling up 5 feet high in some places.   

Nine homes were red-tagged, meaning they were deemed uninhabitable.   

Mayor Laura Olhasso said 24 homes were damaged.   

The mud flow on Manistee was strong enough to push around concrete K- rails and other makeshift mud-diversion devices.   

An evacuation center was set up at La Canada High School, and the Red Cross was setting up other facilities for displaced residents.   

"I toured the site, and it was devastated, and I was really really shocked by what I had seen,'' Antonovich said. "With the homes that were destroyed, automobiles pushed out of the way by the storms, the mudslides moving heavy concrete barriers, the power of that force of that mudslide was an impact that is just very hard to visualize. It's as if you were at Universal Studios on the studio tour seeing a devastated war zone area.''   

Residents said the debris flow sounded like a freight train coming toward them.   

"It was about 5 a.m. and it was really loud, so I decided to get up,'' said Jennifer Dickens, who lives across the street. "I saw this wave coming. It was like a waterfall hitting the house.''   

Dickens said another neighbor's Lexus apparently got swept away overnight.   

Another homeowner said his 20-year-old son was sleeping in a room whose exterior walls were hit with the muck. No injuries were reported, but the mud somehow breached a wall and flowed into the home.   

Although officials had been warning that debris slides were likely because of the combination of rain and scorched hillsides, no evacuations were ordered overnight in the canyons.   

"This one kind of caught us by surprise, said county fire inspector Matt Levesque.''   

He said no weather forecasts had predicted such intense rain.   

A neighbor, who ironically works as an Army Corps of Engineer flood specialist, said mud overtopped a three-foot retaining wall and flowed into his house on Ocean View Boulevard.   

"We had a lot of time to prepare for this, but this was bigger than anything we have ever seen,'' said the flood engineer, Tony Nefas.   

Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Drew Smith, who was surveying the area shortly after daylight said several homes in the area were "compromised.''

Antonovich blamed the U.S. Forest Service for alleged mistakes made during the first days of the Station fire, saying that if the Forest Service had not let the wildfire spread, Saturday's debris flows might have been avoided.   

"We are suffering from the inactions that the U.S. Forestry (Service), created when they allowed that Station fire to continue to burn instead of using the expertise of the L.A. county fire departments air support and ground support, mechanized firefighting equipment when it could've been used,'' Antonovich said. "We could've saved this devastation that's occurring today. We could also have saved two brave firemen who lost their lives and 160,000 acres that had been destroyed.''   

Another debris slide was reported on Fairhurst Drive near Rock Castle Drive about 3:30 a.m., and sheriff's deputies evacuated several homes in the area. No structural damage was reported there.   

Mud flows were also reported overnight on Blanchard Canyon Road in the Tujunga area, and a Los Angeles Fire Department engine reportedly got stuck in mud near Big Tujunga Canyon Road and Oro Vista Avenue.   

In the Hollywood Hills, Nichols Canyon Road was closed due to a mud flow, a city fire spokesman said.   

The rain filled debris basins and flood control channels protecting homes below the 250-square-mile swath of fire-denuded, steep mountains last summer.   

About 30 homes were damaged -- including five that were red-tagged -- about 5:45 a.m. along Ocean View Boulevard in Pickens Canyon, according to the county fire department.   

"It sounded like an earthquake,'' said resident Carolyn O'Keefe.   

In some places, rocks and mud crossed Foothill Boulevard, more than a mile downhill from the urban edge.   

In northern Sierra Madre, evacuations were ordered for 300 homes, no major damage was reported there, and the evacuation order was canceled tonight.   

Meantime, racing was canceled at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia because of the rain.