The Los Angeles River Flood: A Historical Moment In History

A historic moment in history was the Los Angeles River flood that lasted five days. During this flood, there was five days of continuous rainfall and the erosion controls that were in place could not hold the high level of water from coming down the mountains. (Hung 1) This was a flood that was unlike anything the city of Los Angeles had ever seen before. This resulted in the flooding of three area rivers and their tributaries; these were the Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and San Gabriel. The rain and storm started on February 27th 1938 on a late Sunday night. By the next day the rainfall in Los Angeles had gone up to 14.43 inches, compared to the normal seasonal amount which was 10.88 inches. (Simpson 1) The third day of the storm was even heavier
As the heavy rainfall fell on mountainsides and already saturated soil, the water would then run off and go down the creeks and canyons toward the lowest point of the landscape, the Los Angeles River. (Roderick 1) The river began in the San Fernando Valley and the ranches and towns that were there located in that area were cut off by engorged canyon washes spilling their banks. All the bridges were being submerged and washed out by rapid amount of water riding. (Roderick 1) In the San Gabriel Mountains, after the gates opened on Big Tujunga Dam, the situation turned worse by releasing even more water across Los Angeles. The overflow that had came down was uncontrollable for the city of Los Angeles and continued to destroy many aspects as the rainfall continued until 7 p.m.(Liquid) March 3rd. Although the rainfall stopped, the mountains continued submerging the city of Los Angeles under inches of rain into the Santa Ana rivers and caused it to continuously rise and putting many citizens and victims in danger. This flood was considered a 50-year flood because it had a 2 percent change of occurring any given