When the river wants, it’ll flood
ROBERT GARDNER
* EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily Pilot has agreed to republish The Verdict,
the ever popular column written for many years by retired Corona Del
Mar jurist and historian Robert Gardner, in exchange for donations to
the Surfrider Foundation. This particular column was originally
published Dec. 9, 2003.
I’ve read that the Army Corps of Engineers wants to do some
dredging of the Santa Ana River for flood control purposes. Since the
river is mostly concrete, I was puzzled as to just how they were
going to do this.
Obviously, they could use jackhammers, but jackhammers don’t
really fall into the classification of dredging tools.
Now, I understand that they’re focusing on the mouth of the river
where there’s still a natural bottom. Sand has built up there, and so
has vegetation that, according to the engineers, impedes flood
control and so must be removed. No offense to the Army Corps of
Engineers, but I doubt that any engineering can control a real flood.
I was around for the flood of 1938. In those days, the Santa Ana
River was much more of a river than what it is today, a concrete
conduit to move water. The river came charging down from the San
Bernardino mountains, virtually eliminating the village of Atwood,
where 43 people drowned. Large parts of Anaheim, Placentia and most
of what is now Fountain Valley were under water. You could stand on
the bluff in Costa Mesa and look toward the bluff in Huntington
Beach, and everything in between was a great surge of brown water.
I had just left the district attorney’s office and had started a
law practice. My first year as a private attorney I earned $10, so it
shouldn’t be too surprising that I had a lot of time on my hands.
On this particular day, I had dropped by the sheriff’s office to
chat up some old friends, and there I was, listening to the various
reports come in, when Jim Musick, then a deputy sheriff, later
sheriff of Orange County, radioed the office. He said that he was
stuck on the west side of the river and couldn’t get back to Santa
Ana. He requested advice on just what to do. Undersheriff Steve
Duhart, a man of few words, said, “Rent a room.”
I went along with Deputy Sheriff George McKelvey to check out
Santiago Dam, the dam across Santiago Creek that was put in to create
Irvine Lake. We drove through barricades and got as close to the dam
as possible by car, then walked to the foot of the dam. I don’t know
just how high that dam is, but water was coming over the top of the
dam carrying debris, cactus, brush and a couple of small trees. It
looked like the dam was going to go any minute, so we got out of
there. Somehow, the dam held, undoubtedly saving a number of lives.
The 1938 flood led to the building of Prado Dam in 1941. That dam
has done a pretty good job of controlling floods, although it got a
little iffy during the last El Nino period, when it burst some of the
levees behind the dam and flooded Corona airport.
According to a city study, the failure of Prado Dam could cause
some serious flooding in Newport, but since it would take several
hours for the flood waters to reach the city, there would be time to
evacuate.
Having watched people on the East Coast flee from hurricanes, I’m
afraid the water would hit just as traffic reached gridlock.
Homeowners are urged to have emergency supplies in case of
earthquakes and other natural and unnatural disasters: flashlights,
batteries, water, canned goods, matches. I think I just might add a
life raft, and maybe a couple of rubber duckies.
* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge.
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