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.