Near downtown Long Beach along the old embarcadero shoreline 1951 Hello, Two factors made the L.A. River flood control channel from a meandering river to the concrete sided tall containment channel. Valuable real estate for the expansion of the large metropolitan Los Angeles area won out over a natural river leading out to the ocean. Control the flow of water and development can take place. So, by the late 50s, the meandering LA River with its source somewhere deep in the northwestern end of Los Angeles area was contained as much as possible in its flow to the ocean in Long Beach. Since the geography of any river leading out to the ocean shows, the mouth of the river as wide as it gets without hindering concrete, spreads valuable soil from deep inland from the rainstorms. Then as it goes unhindered to the ocean, it deposits valuable soil along the way, leading to great farming and agriculture. Jnaki Our Westside of Long Beach home was located three streets away from the tall river bank. The soil in our backyard was wonderful. Throw any seed out, stomp on it and it automatically grows into a pine tree, flowering plant and tall bushes without any soil amendments and care. Water, sun and wind makes the plant grow at a record speed, due to the excellent soil deposited over the million years of existence. But, when we moved there. The concrete flood channel was finished and during the heavy rains of winter, the L.A. River flows at record speed toward the ocean. If the flow of rain water is greater than the flow allowable to the ocean, the river rises in the concrete channel with possible massive floods as the many years before. When we were little kids, the flood control channel had two episodes of evacuation notices to our low lying neighborhoods. High tides and various hinderances causes the River flow to rise and try and reach the top of the concrete channel. So, far, no breach, yet. But, with the current “King Tides,” record rainfalls, we shall see if it gets to the top… YRMV Note: If the L.A. River flood control channel ever breached, the water would flood the flat areas surrounding the breach. Places all the way West to the Wilmington oil fields and East toward our high school would be flooded as those areas are fairly flat and much lower than the water level when it rains. The safest place would be the bump in the horizon, Signal Hill.
If a cop ever pulled me over riding one of those he would probably have to give me a ticket cause I wouldn't be able to stop laughing at him.
{ JNAKI } I looked up the surf photos for you. I'm sure you have seen some of these before as they are very cool pictures. I'm a little under the weather, and stuck inside. I'm not regularly on this thread. So if I post any wrong stuff? Please let me know and I'll delete them.
The Jalopy Journal
