The Big Wet
Jan. 11th, 2005 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rejectomorphThis weather system has turned into an Event. Ten feet of snow in the higher mountains, Los Angeles washed entirely out to sea, Las Vegas to become a beach town- it's the best in years! Well, OK, the part about the 10 feet of snow in the mountains is true, but the rest might be slightly exaggerated. The odd thing is that, from here, it has seemed for the most part a rather mild, if prolonged, storm. There hasn't even been serious flooding along Butte Creek, as far as I've heard. But L.A. is getting pounded. People are sometimes surprised at the intensity storms can sometimes have in the southern part of the state. A century of flood control projects has disguised the results of the big storms.
Hardly anyone remembers that, in the 19th century, there were winters when hundreds of square miles of Los Angeles County were underwater at times. Before it was paved, the Los Angeles River was prone to radical changes of its course. Historically, it often flowed west into Santa Monica Bay, rather than south to San Pedro Bay as it now does. As recently as 1825, it flowed west from just south of what is now downtown all year round, and had done so for some time. And as recently as the early 20th century, Los Angeles was described as a place where the rivers flowed underground eleven months of the year, and through the streets the other month. It could be that the place is now going to have a hundred year flood. Maybe even a 500 year flood. If so, I'm sorry that I'm going to miss it. I always enjoyed the floods when I was a kid, especially when the older bridges across the San Gabriel River came apart and went floating down the raging stream. Ah, nostalgia. At least there's television now, so I'll get to see it in miniature.
My favorite part of the rain here has been when the earliest-rising neighbors who commute drive their cars down the still-dark street, and I watch the rain falling in their headlights. I love riding through rain at night, but seldom get to do it anymore. Watching somebody else do it is the next best thing.
Hardly anyone remembers that, in the 19th century, there were winters when hundreds of square miles of Los Angeles County were underwater at times. Before it was paved, the Los Angeles River was prone to radical changes of its course. Historically, it often flowed west into Santa Monica Bay, rather than south to San Pedro Bay as it now does. As recently as 1825, it flowed west from just south of what is now downtown all year round, and had done so for some time. And as recently as the early 20th century, Los Angeles was described as a place where the rivers flowed underground eleven months of the year, and through the streets the other month. It could be that the place is now going to have a hundred year flood. Maybe even a 500 year flood. If so, I'm sorry that I'm going to miss it. I always enjoyed the floods when I was a kid, especially when the older bridges across the San Gabriel River came apart and went floating down the raging stream. Ah, nostalgia. At least there's television now, so I'll get to see it in miniature.
My favorite part of the rain here has been when the earliest-rising neighbors who commute drive their cars down the still-dark street, and I watch the rain falling in their headlights. I love riding through rain at night, but seldom get to do it anymore. Watching somebody else do it is the next best thing.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 05:37 pm (UTC)Appreciated your description of days past in L.A. The only time I ever saw the "river" was when it was completely dry, looking like a huge cement culvert.