Would I be correct in saying the name “Life Saver” came from the floating ring that was tossed over the side of a boat when someone went overboard?
Not Long Beach, although it could be anywhere that is a low lying street near any water source. River, drain pipes, gutters, no gutters, etc. Seal Beach has its own problems with low lying streets, including PCH. Yes, the rain affects the low, but busy highway running through town. If the area is near the bay or water areas inland, the heavy high tides play a part of rising waters and add that to the heavy rains and yes, PCH gets flooded. Now, that becomes a mess, as millions of folks use PCH to get to and from work. Hello, As low as a lot of places are in Long Beach, the noted “L.B. photo” could be anywhere along the Los Angeles River. But, a search from some “local in Los Angeles’ found that it was in the Marina Del Rey area near Venice Beach. That area was once a low lying swampy area and when the design for the giant harbor came to being a reality, it was leveled and most streets are at water level or close. No, we are old, but not that old. We drove on those streets plenty of times during nice weather for the past 40-50 years. But, when the rains come, those streets can get flooded. The slightest “street runoff” items can clog up the eventual run off drain pipes heading for the river or creek leading to the ocean. So, yes, the ocean is the final dumping ground for inland wastes and crapola. That is why no one should be in the water after a rain, due to gobs of infectious “whatevers” floating around. Hepatitis shots or not. So, when there is a heavy rainy season in Los Angeles basin and it is high tide, water rises causing flooding on the nearby streets. In our Long Beach area next to the low lying LB Freeway and the tall “flood control channel, (L.A. River) we are lucky the disastrous 100 year flood has not happened. One year, some schools were closed and the area near our Westside house was under warnings for a possible evacuation of the possible, overflowing Los Angeles River, over the top of the concrete channel heading to the ocean. We drove to school and looked down to the river. It was about a foot or so from the top walkway. If it overflowed, the surrounding homes on both sides of the river (including our trapped mom) would be under a foot or two of water. Yucky water at that. Jnaki Note: Whether it is the runoff from higher elevations or an over flow from a creek that turned into a raging river… water goes to the lowest levels anywhere. City streets included, is a fact of life all over the USA. The rains and flooding, always brings back those memories of the gutter races we had with our small model ships. The 1/24 plastic cars were lined up on the curb out in front of our Westside Long Beach house, as the audience was gathering for the races. Just inches away, the flow of water in the gutter was whizzing by to head for PCH just blocks away. The main drain to the LA River is on PCH. The flow was very fast and wide. Out in front of our street, the gutter crosses all intersections and ends up in front of the Olympic Auto Parts Store and the power wash business. The huge drain is on PCH and connects to the outlet somewhere in the flood control channel just blocks away in the fast flowing Los Angeles River heading for the ocean. For some reason, usually too much water rising and covering the outflow pipes, the exit is slow and backs up into the lowest areas, which in this case, our neighboring streets. If one looks at old photos prior to the building of the concrete high walls protecting and enclosing the flowing river, this whole low lying area was usually underwater from the early settlers and the horse and buggy days. “Water always wins” is a current popular saying. It is always searching for the lowest spot to gather. One day in the local Long Beach Press Telegram newspaper, there was a photo of a flooded intersection. It was the corner of Caspian Ave. and PCH, Westside Long Beach. (our old house is three blocks back in the photo) If we did not stop the boats at our corner with the metal rakes, they went down to the next block. Once we did let one old battleship go all the way to the big sucking drain at PCH and it whooshed away. Oh, those rainy days gave us a ton of fun, wearing our yellow raincoats or later on, clear plastic jacket-raincoats that showed what we had on underneath. But, the play in the falling rain was perfect for our old boat races in the fast flowing gutter, searching for the larger areas to flood. Our cars looked like boats plowing the water to the sides as we moved to higher elevations on the way to our high school. The farther away from any water source and the higher the elevation becomes, the less chance there is for flooding. “It all goes downhill from there,” is a popular saying depicting anything or any situation. Well, it was originally describing water always running downhill as does the “stuff” in any situation noted. L.A. River on the left, almost getting to the top. The Long Beach Freeway 710 from the Harbor heading inland towards Los Angeles. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
