🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3nrcqd$pn0@alcor.usc.edu> etrinida@scf.usc.edu writes:
>In article <3nr1pu$q25@news.aero.org>,
>Robert S. Helfman <helfman@aero.org> wrote:

>>...If you moved to L.A. in a wet year and built your
>>life, farming, and buildings around that higher 30+ rainfall, you'd get a
>>real surprise within a couple of years when an 8" year came along.
>
>Speaking of which, I assume 1862 was an example of a "Hundred Year Flood,"
>which probably ranks a very distant second as the most feared and anticipated
>natural disaster in the Los Angeles area, and since we had no extremely major
>flooding since the 1960s (1982/83, 1992 and 1995 being the closest things
>from what I remember), is a "hundred year flood" still emminent? Will
>it make winter '95 look like a drizzle? Or has it already come and gone
>without us noticing?

I think our 1995 flood was probably a 100-year flood at best. This has
NOT been a particularly heavy-rainfall year; we just had a lot of it
in a relatively short time. We have had maybe 8 or 10 30"+ years
since records were started in the 1800's, and this year isn't near
30" yet (and stands almost no chance of getting there). But 1862 -
which, I believe, was before official record-keeping began -- probably
qualifies for a 250-year storm. 

It's important to realize that, with almost all of L.A. covered with
asphalt, houses, or concrete, there is precious little raw ground into
which water can soak. The same rainfall that would have been a minor
annoyance in the 1800's would produce some serious flooding nowadays,
IF the storm drains didn't exist. L.A. does have a very impressive
network of storm drains, which, considering the flatness of most of
the city's area, do a fantastic job carrying off rainwater. The
drains in the downtown area are large enough to drive jeeps through
(see the old '50s B&W monster flick "Them" for great footage). Several
former creeks (example: the one coming out of Stone Canyon near UCLA, which
used to run through where the UCLA athletic fields and Pauley Pavilion
now sit) have been turned into pretty large concrete box-drains. The
one just cited formerly ran through the parking lots just west of
Gayley and east of Veteran before it was boxed in the '60s or '70s.

When I was in high school in the mid '50s, friends and I explored that drain
from Wilshire all the way to where it opens up and passes under the
405 near National Blvd (where the small white Caltrans 
sign identifies it as "Westwood Channel".) It eventually merges
with Ballona Creek.

We took a bunch of flashlights and waded through
the gunk. It's at least 5 miles; we weren't counting. It's big enough
to drive a stakeside truck through with room to spare.

BTW, the quad of the UCLA campus where Schoenberg Hall
sits was a very deep arroyo before the school was built in 1929.
The arroyo was open until the late 1940's, and a nice arching bridge
crossed it leading from the east to the quad where Kinsey, Moore, Powell, and
Royce are located. (The arroyo and bridge are visible in many
old pictures of early UCLA). In the '40s, the rest of the arroyo was bridged
with concrete columns and the open sunken quad sections just
east of the flagpole were built on top of the columns. In the
early '50s, when I was in junior high, my exploring friends and
I sneeked into the open area under the quad.

Walking along the catwalk suspended on the concrete columns, we
could hear the rushing creek far below us in the arroyo. It was
quite eerie.