by Paul R. Spitzzeri
This rain season has been a relatively dry one with under eight inches recorded in Los Angeles, compared to more than three times that amount last year. Moreover, most of our rain came somewhat late, with almost five inches in February and another 2.2 in March. What is even rarer is a spate of storms in April, once spring has sprung, that drench our region, and this post, sharing four 11 April 1926 photographs from the Homestead’s collection, concerns what was considered the wettest April to date when powerful storms battered the area and caused widespread flooding and damage.
Notably, the Pasadena Star-News on Monday, 5 April that,
California has not suffered from disastrous floods for several years. But this should not lull the state into a false sense of security. There will be other devastating floods. The state will continue to lose heavily from this source until the people, in their wisdom, aroused to the wastefulness of tolerating uncontrolled streams, shall demand that each and every water course in the state which is subject to flood, shall be controlled scientifically.
Prior posts here have noted that massive flooding about a decade prior, in 1914 and 1916, led Los Angeles County to create a flood control program, led by engineer James W. Reagan, that included a widespread series of dams and other elements and work was undertaken, including heavily in the San Gabriel Valley, to deal with the issue.
Notably, in the Star-News on the 2nd, Rolland Vandegrift, the California Taxpayers Association’s research director, discussed the county’s history of flood control as he pointed out the great cost, said by him to be above $83 million, for the proposed massive dam in San Gabriel Canyon (the Museum just acquired some great 1929 construction photos of that project, which will likely be shared next year). His argument was that taxpayers in Los Angeles County “believe in the necessity of flood control and water conservation; but at the same time they have a right to keep the burden of taxation for this purpose as low as possible.”
On the evening of Sunday the 4th and Monday the 5th, the first of a series of storms hit, principally in the mountains, leading the Pasadena Post of the 5th to state that “reports that the framework of the new Santa Anita canyon flood control dam had been completely washed away” were received in town, while it was added that “the cloudburst washed thousands of tons of mud and rocks into the Pacific Electric railway cut at Duarte, and the tracks will be blocked for several weeks.”
The Star-News of the same date remarked that “sweeping everything before it the West Fork of the San Gabriel broke its banks early this morning and changed its course” because of the downpour totaling a striking 11 inches, so that “private-owned cabins were demolished, several being carried down stream in wreckage into the San Gabriel River.” Damage to a pair of cabins at Opid’s Camp was pegged at $2,500, while Ernest DeVore, who ran the Valley Forge Lodge stated that the fork jumped its course and formed a new bed, while cabins in his vicinity were also destroyed.
The Monrovia News reported that “heavy rains during the night brought the usual flooded areas and blocked street car traffic,” including the Duarte damage that involved two feet of mud and water clogging that cut.” A bridge over the wash emerging from Sawpit Canyon and going to Norumbega Heights in an eminence on the east end of town was holding up as was a swale at Huntington Drive. While water, mud and sand was deposited heavily on some sidewalks and streets, damage was then limited.
While another three inches of rain fell the following day, the next day’s News stated that damage was still minimal and “the effect of the moisture [was] held beneficial” though it was added that Gold Hill at the base of the mountains “conceived a wild desire to transport itself . . . and take up its future abode on Myrtle avenue,” though left only parts of itself on the main thoroughfare. Some businesses, including the local Piggly Wiggly chain grocery store, and houses dealt with mild flooding and mud, while resident Walter Kuhn nearly escaped death after his Ford was swept off Huntington Drive at the Sawpit Wash swale. He was pinned by the car’s top, but a wave of water washed the top away and he was able to get to the bank.
The Los Angeles Times, also of the 6th, remarked,
One of the heaviest and most spectacular April rains that Los Angeles and vicinity have experienced continued to sweep in from the ocean yesterday dispensing aid to the farmer on the one hand and bringing damage to the works of man on the other.
A Japanese man known only as Hega (Higa) was working on his farm plot on Atlantic Avenue near Bell, southeast of town, and was apparently killed by a lightning strike (these elements of the storm also hit Union Oil Company storage tanks at San Luis Obispo and Brea). Otherwise, rail lines were blocked, streets flooded “and bridges were swept away or endangered as torrential floods swept down out of the mountains into the valleys.”
The storm was dubbed “freakish” as there were wildly varying amounts of rain detected in the region and it was added that the prior day’s rainfall “was, for Los Angeles and vicinity, the heaviest April rain since 1903” and it was noted that there were only two other Aprils in the nearly half-century (1877) since the local weather bureau was formed in which higher levels of rain were reported. Moreover, this massive pattern spread through the entire Pacific Coast and was predicted several days prior by the federal bureau.
At 5 the previous afternoon, the paper continued, “a veritable deluge hit the downtown district sending small rivers down the streets and covering the pavements from curb to curb” though the worst damage to date seemed to involve the Pacoima Creek and the San Fernando Road bridge over it in the eastern San Fernando Valley, while roads north of Ventura Boulevard throughout that section were closed. In the San Gabriel Valley, the reports were much as noted above and otherwise there were generally remarks about the saturation of regions and rising levels in reservoirs, but not much about damage.
The Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News of the 7th observed that another storm was heading to the area, while it also noted that a trio of men decided to ride the swollen Los Angeles River in a boat, starting from the First Street Viaduct and hoping to make it all the way to the Port of Los Angeles, but it soon capsized near the Ninth Street bridge among four-feet high waves and threatened the lives of its occupants.
It also reported that a family narrowly escaped death when their car went off the road on Valley Boulevard and into a wash near El Monte, residents of a Latino barrio called Guadalupe Hidalgo between Whittier and Montebello had to be rescued, probably because they resided next to either the San Gabriel River or the Río Hondo, and three bridges were reported destroyed in the Covina area, including a county bridge near Grand Avenue, at the Featherstone quarry where Charter Oak and San Dimas meet today and the nearby California Preparatory School for Boys.
The Los Angeles Record of the same day castigated Los Angeles County Supervisor John H. Bean because “farmers in the San Dimas-Covina district today saw their fertile lands laid bare, a mass of debris and wreckage, the result of the breaking of the Puddingstone dam, another ‘brilliant’ piece of county construction.” The paper, critical of county flood control efforts and, more broadly, other public works projects, lambasted the supervisors for lavishing money on the Hall of Justice and County Hospital efforts, while “Puddingstone dam was one of the most sorely needed flood control features,” but was left to merely “design to care for run-off of the San Dimas wash.
The concrete dam was built to 23 feet, the Record continued, before work was stopped and haggling ensued about whether Puddingstone was to be part of the massive Colorado River delivery project, as envisioned by water delivery and dam guru William Mulholland, whose stellar reputation was dashed by the April 1928 failure of the St. Francis Dam, or to have its existing work continued. Bean, however, was blamed for the supervisors’ rejection of bids for further construction in October and December 1925.
Reagan, meanwhile, told the press “if we only had two weeks more our plans would have been completed and his flood control office denied any issues with Puddingstone, but “yesterday the waters broke through the concrete with a crash” and “rushing down the valley a raging torrent the waters carried trees, gigantic boulders and all sorts of debris with it.” From there, the water fanned out and “swept over citrus farms, chicken ranches and the truck gardens, but also of concern to the paper was the fact that a tunnel to carry floodwater was not lined with concrete and “NO DEBRIS GUARDS WERE PLACED AT THE ENDS,” so that there “was just an open hole for the water to run through.” Consequently, “with this type of construction almost any sized flood would wreck the dam.”
The Times also discussed the Puddingstone dam and Covina-area damage, noting that a 100-foot wide portion of the dam was damaged and a 50-foot wall of water roared down Walnut Creek and destroyed the aforementioned bridges, while it was added that three families managed to escape the flood as it rushed toward them. It also reported another death, that of a seven-year old boy in Boyle Heights, who fell in a sewer ditch while playing with another boy.
While it was still averred that damage was rather minimal, the Star-News did briefly editorialize that,
California’s need of flood-control is again stressed. The state has lost immense qualities of surplus water during this heavy April rain. Not only this, but considerable damage from floods has resulted. It would be prudent business for California to put all its streams under control. It would be economy for the state, in the long run.
Separately on that page, it repeated the need for flood control and water impoundment with the addition that “science must be conscripted” and “skill and foresight must be in evidence,” not to mention that “vast sums must be expended.”
Another piece was titled “Control Floods! Big Problem Here” in which it was exhorted that,
Object lesson after object lesson is given California and the Southwest in the imperative need of control over floods. The great April storm was has deluged this state, has given the latest edition of this object lesson. The rain has done good inestimable. But it has been attended by considerable damage. [After linking the problem to areas scorched by recent wildfires, which we certainly understand now] . . . California lost enough surplus water, during this April storm, to have carried the state through a dry year, supplementing its regular water supply. This truly is loss—economic loss . . . Every stream in California, eventually, must be dammed . . . No more time should be lost. This gigantic scheme cannot be worked out, in its entirety, in a day. It will require years, and large outlay. But time and money will be well spent, in bringing floods into subjection.
In its edition of the 8th, the Times remarked that “yesterday’s added precipitation shattered all records for rainfall during the month of April” with the previous record being a bit over five inches in 1880 and the total to date being 5.39. It was added that the average since 1877 was under an inch, with just a few years in which the amounts were over two, including the 1884-1887 period and 1903, so the total in 1926 was truly exceptional.
Moreover, while the Record attempted to find humor in the fact that people were “On the Beach at 6th and Wall” in what is now the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles in showing a photograph of a gallant gent carrying a woman through the flooded intersection, there were further reports of some significant damage from the deluge. This included more deaths and destruction, including those shown in the highlighted photos featured here from the Museum’s collection.
The Star-News of the 8th, for example, cited a report that along the wash emanating from Eaton Canyon (where the horrific Altadena fire of earlier this year erupted) led to the destruction of the Foothill Boulevard bridge, this about where Interstate 210 crosses the wash today, and it added that “the south half of the East Colorado street bridge near Lamanda Park has been washed away and the north part of the span is regarded as unsafe, although it is being used by engineers and laborers engaged in repairing storm damage.” Photos of both are included and the Colorado Street one corresponds to those from our collection, though not the exact views.
For more on that and other flood-related coverage, we’ll return with part two, so be sure to look for that.