A little rain with your breakfast, lunch and dinner for the last 5 days and continuing? Yikes! What is it like driving through a flooded street in front of your house during a m***ive rainstorm? The 710 freeway is right next to the Los Angeles River. Back in old history, the whole area where our house and tract was built was a flood plain, all the way to the ocean about 3-4 miles away. The area is well known for this natural phenomenon from the origin of the Los Angeles River. When it rains, the natural river leading to the ocean overflows it normal banks and starts spreading everywhere. It was one reason, everyone in the whole neighborhood of this flood plain has such good soil for growing anything. Throw out a seed and a pine tree grows. A gallon plant grows to 10 feet within a half year after planting with no additive liquid for plant shock, etc. for car folks, the yards were so big that liquids were buried in the far corners of the yard away from the early houses. But, as the home were built, cars were driven all over, the street drainage on level ground was difficult to control. The rain caused the streets to be underwater at PCH near our house, during many storms it overpowered the Los Angeles River/local street drainage system. Hello, Our old 1940s tract house was as flat as it could be. But, as flat housing tracts can get, the intersections have deep ruts when streets cross. The deep ruts all head East toward the Los Angeles River, which is contained by huge walls and keeps the normal water flowing towards the ocean at the Long Beach Harbor, where the Queen Mary sits. Our tract house built in 1946 got water across the driveway almost every major rain storm… the street, with cars/trucks moving, looked like a bunch of boats cruising across the local harbor. The gutter in front of our house was always good for fast drainage to the cross streets. That allowed us to use the flowing water for our plastic battle ship models and destroyers to race in the flowing water. It was always a fast race as the flowing water took those lightweight plastic models and as long as they stayed upright, flew toward the cross street. If we did not catch the ships by the time it hit the side crossing flow of water, then it went into the curb drain or headed towards the L.A. River a few blocks away. The rainy season always brings fast flowing water along our curbs, in front of our house. As the rain continues, the L.A. River rises and flows faster towards the ocean. When it gets too high, the street drains have a hard time taking the flowing water in front of our houses and then the chain reaction comes into play. Slow drainage to the river and now our own streets began to flood. So, our neighborhood is well known for m***ive flooding. We had to back out of our house and as soon as that, we were up to the bottom of the rim heading for the road to school. It did not matter which street we went out to get to PCH, they were all flooded. Jnaki One year as we treaded through the flooded streets to get to PCH, (as high as the middle of the rim) we had to go over the L.A. River to get to our high school. This necessitated a gentle brake pedal pressure to keep the drum dry and hope that it was keeping the brakes ability to stop. It was one pressure on the pedal type of drive to get to actual dry street areas, heading toward our high school. As we drove over the PCH freeway and L.A. River overp***, we could see that the flow of rainwater was close to the top. The only way to get out of the area incase of a overflow water situation is to head for Wilmington to the West. The flood waters would cover our whole neighborhood at least two feet deep or more if the enclosed river overflowed. Most of the area surrounding the long L.A. River is lower than average. But, our high school area is on a slight rise of a hill and well protected from floods. It used to be a common happening during storms, but since they increased the level of the walls, it protected much better. Mother nature still did the job of making the river flow out to the ocean nearby. Note: The end point of all of the flowing river is at the Queen Mary location and every cup, bag, floating item from all the way back to Dodger Stadium comes flowing down to reside at the ocean shores. Needless to say, the water is always polluted and not safe for boating. In the 30-40s, the river flowed out and merged with the ocean and after a rain, like all rivers dumped everything in the area. So, even back then the waters were polluted for days after the rainfall. Can’t imagine what this recent 5 days of heavy rain did to the streets and drainage system in that old Westside of Long Beach. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
